Should a string constants class be static?

Question

I am working on a new project and I have noticed some code that I am not sure is true. The names and values I am using to demonstrate the question are fake.

public class MyConsts //Should it be static?
{
    public const string MyConst1 = "a";
    public const string MyConst2 = "b";
    public const string MyConst3 = "c";
    public const string MyConst4 = "d";
    ....
}

For my logic this class (that contains only consts values) should be static, so no option to initialize it, which has no sense, am I correct?

EDIT: I was writing the code blind so I have confused the order of string and const - and because it wasn't the target of my question I've fixed this.

Answer 1

Yes, it makes sense for it to be static. That signifies your intention, prevents clients from even declaring a variable of that type, etc.

You'll need to move the const modifier before the type part though:

public const string MyConst1 = "a";
...

If the values could ever change, consider using public static readonly fields instead of const though - otherwise the value will be baked into any code which refers to the constants, which means you need to rebuild any client code if the values change.

(Another option is to make the constants internal instead of public.)

Answer 2

Yes the class should be static. But related, should those values actually be const?

Anything declared const will be compiled into any referencing assemblies, so if this is a class library, say, and you put out a new version with changes to those const values, they won't be picked up by the assemblies that reference them.

In that particular case public static readonly string makes sense.

However, if those are only visible within a single particular assembly (for instance a console application or WinForms app), then you should declare that class internal and the consts are fine as-is.