Introduction
A symbolic constant in any programming language is a name — a symbol — that can be used to stand in for a constant — a literal value. Programming languages inherited symbolic constants from mathematics that has many of them grouped by specific field of study. Examples include: π (pi), c (speed of light), e (Euler’s number), G (gravitational constant), h (Plank’s constant), etc. While those exact constants can be defined and used in programs, many programs define program-specific constants. Using constants is better than using magic numbers.
Both C and C++ have acquired multiple ways to specify symbolic constants as their respective languages have evolved over the decades, namely:
Macros (via #define).
Enumerations.
