[Quickfix-developers] Non-const constants

[Brian E. <azz...@ya...>]

Is there are a reason that constant strings in the .Net library are not "const"?

For instance, the MsgType class defines a whole series of static string "constants" for all the known FIX message types (beginning with ALLOCATION and ending with XML_MESSAGE). Unfortunately, they are defined as "public static string" rather than "public const string".

This may seem like a trivial difference, but it means that these values can't be used as part of a switch() statement.

switch (msgType.getValue())
{
    case MsgType.HEARTBEAT: // Doesn't work - not a constant value
}

So, I end up making parallel classes that simply redefine the values in a "const" manner.

public class MsgTypeConstants
{
    public const string HEARTBEAT = "0";
    ...
}

switch (msgType.getValue())
{
    case MsgTypeConstants.HEARTBEAT: // This works
}

Is there a reason for "static" instead of "const"?

- Brian Erst
Thynk Software, Inc.