Constant CONSTANT, a. [L.]
1. Fixed; firm; opposed to fluid.
To turn two fluid liquors into a constant body.
[In this sense, not used.]
2. Fixed; not varied; unchanged; permanent; immutable.
The worlds a scene of changes, and to be constant, in nature were inconstancy.
3. Fixed or firm in mind, purpose, affection or principle; unshaken; unmoved; as a constant friend or lover.
4. Certain; steady; firmly adherent; with to; as a man constant to his purpose, or to his duties.

constant adj 1: unvarying in nature; "maintained a constant temperature"; "principles of unvarying validity" [syn: changeless, constant, invariant, unvarying] 2: steadfast in purpose or devotion or affection; "a man constant in adherence to his ideals"; "a constant lover"; "constant as the northern star" [ant: inconstant] 3: uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing; "the ceaseless thunder of surf"; "in constant pain"; "night and day we live with the incessant noise of the city"; "the never-ending search for happiness"; "the perpetual struggle to maintain standards in a democracy"; "man's unceasing warfare with drought and isolation"; "unremitting demands of hunger" [syn: ceaseless, constant, incessant, never- ending}, perpetual, unceasing, unremitting] n 1: a quantity that does not vary [syn: constant, constant quantity}, invariable] 2: a number representing a quantity assumed to have a fixed value in a specified mathematical context; "the velocity of light is a constant"

constant - zubok

constant - zukob

constant c.1386, "steadfast, resolute," from L. constantem (nom. constans) "standing firm, stable, steadfast," prp. of constare, from com- "together" + stare "to stand." Of actions and conditions from 1653.

constant I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin constant-, constans, from present participle of constare to stand firm, be consistent, from com- + stare to stand — more at stand Date: 14th century 1. marked by firm steadfast resolution or faithfulness ; exhibiting constancy of mind or attachment <a constant friend> 2. invariable, uniform <a constant flow> 3. continually occurring or recurring ; regular <a constant annoyance> Synonyms: see faithful, continual • constantly adverb II. noun Date: 1832 something invariable or unchanging: as a. a number that has a fixed value in a given situation or universally or that is characteristic of some substance or instrument b. a number that is assumed not to change value in a given mathematical discussion c. a term in logic with a fixed designation

constant
adj. & n.
--adj.
1 continuous (needs constant attention).
2 occurring frequently (receive constant complaints).
3 (often foll. by to) unchanging, faithful, dependable.
--n.
1 anything that does not vary.
2 Math. a component of a relationship between variables that does not change its value.
3 Physics a a number expressing a relation, property, etc., and remaining the same in all circumstances. b such a number that remains the same for a substance in the same conditions.
Derivatives:
constantly adv.
Etymology: ME f. OF f. L constare (as com-, stare stand)

constant (constants) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. You use constant to describe something that happens all the time or is always there. Inflation is a constant threat... He has been her constant companion for the last four months. = continual ADJ: usu ADJ n • constantly The direction of the wind is constantly changing... ADV: usu ADV with v, also ADV adv/adj 2. If an amount or level is constant, it stays the same over a particular period of time. The average speed of the winds remained constant. = stable ADJ 3. A constant is a thing or value that always stays the same. In the world of fashion it sometimes seems that the only constant is ceaseless change... ≠ variable N-COUNT

constant ˈkɔnstənt adj. & n. --adj. 1 continuous (needs constant attention). 2 occurring frequently (receive constant complaints). 3 (often foll. by to) unchanging, faithful, dependable. --n. 1 anything that does not vary. 2 Math. a component of a relationship between variables that does not change its value. 3 Physics a a number expressing a relation, property, etc., and remaining the same in all circumstances. b such a number that remains the same for a substance in the same conditions. øøconstantly adv. [ME f. OF f. L constare (as com-, stare stand)]

constant
fæstræd, anhydig

Constant \Con"stant\, n. 1. (Astron.) A number whose value, when ascertained (as by observation) and substituted in a general mathematical formula expressing an astronomical law, completely determines that law and enables predictions to be made of its effect in particular cases. 2. (Physics) A number expressing some property or condition of a substance or of an instrument of precision; as, the dielectric constant of quartz; the collimation constant of a transit instrument. Aberration constant, or Constant of aberration (Astron.), a number which by substitution in the general formula for aberration enables a prediction to be made of the effect of aberration on a star anywhere situated. Its value is 20[sec].47. Constant of integration (Math.), an undetermined constant added to every result of integration. Gravitation constant (Physics), the acceleration per unit of time produced by the attraction of a unit of mass at unit distance. When this is known the acceleration produced at any distance can be calculated. Solar constant (Astron.), the quantity of heat received by the earth from the sun in a unit of time. It is, on the C. G. S. system, 0.0417 small calories per square centimeter per second. --Young.

Constant \Con"stant\, a. [L. onstans, -antis, p. pr. of constare to stand firm, to be consistent; con- + stare to stand: cf. F. constant. See Stand and cf. Cost, v. t.] 1. Firm; solid; fixed; immovable; -- opposed to fluid. [Obs.] If . . . you mix them, you may turn these two fluid liquors into a constant body. --Boyle. 2. Not liable, or given, to change; permanent; regular; continuous; continually recurring; steadfast; faithful; not fickle. Both loving one fair maid, they yet remained constant friends. --Sir P. Sidney. I am constant to my purposes. --Shak. His gifts, his constant ourtship, nothing gained. --Dryden. Onward the constant current sweeps. --Longfellow. 3. (Math. & Physics) Remaining unchanged or invariable, as a quantity, force, law, etc. 4. Consistent; logical. [Obs.] --Shak. Syn: Fixed; steadfast; unchanging; permanent; unalterable; immutable; invariable; perpetual; continual; resolute; firm; unshaken; determined. Usage: Constant, Continual, Perpetual. These words are sometimes used in an absolute and sometimes in a qualified sense. Constant denotes, in its absolute sense, unchangeably fixed; as, a constant mind or purpose. In its qualified sense, it marks something as a ``standing'' fact or occurence; as, liable to constant interruptions; constantly called for. Continual, in its absolute sense, coincides with continuous. See Continuous. In its qualified sense, it describes a thing as occuring in steady and rapid succession; as, a round of continual calls; continually changing. Perpetual denotes, in its absolute sense, what literally never ceases or comes to an end; as, perpetual motion. In its qualified sense, it is used hyperbolically, and denotes that which rarely ceases; as, perpetual disturbance; perpetual noise; perpetual intermeddling.

Constant \Con"stant\, n. 1. That which is not subject to change; that which is invariable. 2. (Math.) A quantity that does not change its value; -- used in countradistinction to variable. Absolute constant (Math.), one whose value is absolutely the same under all circumstances, as the number 10, or any numeral. Arbitrary constant, an undetermined constant in a differential equation having the same value during all changes in the values of the variables.

constant a. 1. Stable, fixed, immutable, unvaried, invariable, unchanging, permanent, perpetual. 2. Uniform, regular, stated, certain. 3. Resolute, firm, steady, steadfast, stanch, determined, unshaken, unwavering. 4. Persevering, assiduous, unremitting. 5. Incessant, uninterrupted, unbroken, perpetual, continuous, continual. 6. Faithful, true, trusty, loyal, devoted.

constant ˈkɔnstənt adj. 1 resolute, immovable, steadfast, firm, dependable, unshakeable or unshakable, determined, unswerving, undeviating, persevering, unwearying, unwearied, untiring, indefatigable, tireless, unflagging, unwavering, unfailing, unfaltering, persistent; loyal, true, tried and true, devoted, staunch, trusty, faithful: He was her constant companion during her troubles. 2 incessant, unceasing, ceaseless, perpetual, persistent, uninterrupted, steady, regular, invariable, unremitting, unvarying, relentless, unrelenting, continuous, continual; unending, endless, never-ending, non-stop, perennial, eternal, everlasting, Literary sempiternal: The constant pain almost made me cry out. Their constant bickering is getting on my nerves. 3 unchanging, unchanged, invariable, unvarying, fixed, uniform, unalterable, immutable, changeless, persistent: The numbers might change, but the ratio is constant.

336 Moby Thesaurus words for "constant": abiding, accordant, active, age-long, aged, ageless, alike, ancient, antique, ardent, articulated, assiduous, atom, atomic mass, atomic number, atomic weight, automatic, balanced, beaten, catenated, ceaseless, changeless, chattering, chronic, clinging, close, coeternal, colorfast, committed, compliant, concatenated, confirmed, conforming, connected, conscientious, consistent, consonant, continual, continued, continuing, continuous, correspondent, cyclical, dateless, dedicated, deep-dyed, delicate, dependable, determined, devoted, devout, diligent, direct, diuturnal, dogged, double-dyed, durable, duteous, dutiful, dyed-in-the-wool, endless, enduring, equable, equal, eternal, eterne, even, ever-being, ever-durable, ever-during, evergreen, everlasting, everliving, exact, express, fadeless, faithful, fast, featureless, fine, firm, fixed, flat, flinty, frequent, frozen, gapless, habitual, hackneyed, hardy, homogeneous, immediate, immemorial, immobile, immovable, immutable, inalterable, incessant, incommutable, inconvertible, indefatigable, indefeasible, indelible, indestructible, indomitable, industrious, inerrable, inerrant, inert, infallible, infinite, inflexible, ingrain, ingrained, insistent, insusceptible of change, intact, interminable, intransient, intransmutable, invariable, inveterate, invincible, inviolate, irretrievable, irreversible, irrevocable, joined, jointless, lasting, level, liege, linked, long-lasting, long-lived, long-standing, long-term, longeval, longevous, loyal, machine gun, macrobiotic, marble-constant, mathematical, measured, mechanical, methodic, methodical, meticulous, micrometrically precise, microscopic, mindful, monolithic, monotonous, never-ceasing, never-ending, never-tiring, nice, noble, nonreturnable, nonreversible, nonstop, nonterminating, nonterminous, observant, obstinate, of a piece, of long duration, of long standing, olamic, ordered, orderly, oscillating, patient, patient as Job, perdurable, perduring, perennial, periodic, permanent, perpetual, perseverant, persevering, persistent, persisting, pertinacious, pinpoint, plodding, plugging, practicing, precise, preoccupied, pulsating, punctilious, punctual, quantum, quiescent, rapid, rapt, recurrent, recurring, refined, regardful, regular, regular as clockwork, relentless, religious, religiously exact, remaining, repeated, repetitive, resolute, reverseless, rigid, rigorous, robotlike, round-the-clock, routine, running, scientific, scientifically exact, scrupulous, seamless, sedulous, sempervirent, sempiternal, serried, set, settled, severe, single-minded, sleepless, slogging, smooth, solid, sot, square, stabile, stable, staccato, static, stationary, staunch, staying, steadfast, steady, steely, stereotyped, straight, strict, stubborn, stuttering, subtle, sustained, systematic, tenacious, tested, timeless, tireless, torpid, tough, tried, tried and true, trite, true, true-blue, trusty, twenty-four-hour, unabating, unalterable, unalterative, unaltered, unbending, unbroken, unceasing, unchangeable, unchanged, unchanging, unchecked, unconquerable, undaunted, undeflectable, undestroyed, undeviating, undifferentiated, undiscouraged, undiversified, undrooping, unending, unerring, unfading, unfailing, unfaltering, unflagging, unflappable, unflinching, uniform, unintermitted, unintermittent, unintermitting, uninterrupted, unmodifiable, unmovable, unnodding, unrelaxing, unrelenting, unrelieved, unremitting, unrestorable, unreturnable, unruffled, unshakable, unshakeable, unshaken, unshifting, unsleeping, unstopped, unsusceptible, unswerving, untiring, unvariable, unvaried, unvarying, unwavering, unwearied, unwearying, unwinking, unyielding, utterly attentive, valence, vibrating, vital, weariless, well-trodden, well-worn, without end

constant constant(3perl) Perl Programmers Reference Guide constant(3perl) NAME constant - Perl pragma to declare constants SYNOPSIS use constant PI => 4 * atan2(1, 1); use constant DEBUG => 0; print "Pi equals ", PI, "...\n" if DEBUG; use constant { SEC => 0, MIN => 1, HOUR => 2, MDAY => 3, MON => 4, YEAR => 5, WDAY => 6, YDAY => 7, ISDST => 8, }; use constant WEEKDAYS => qw( Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday ); print "Today is ", (WEEKDAYS)[ (localtime)[WDAY] ], ".\n"; DESCRIPTION This will declare a symbol to be a constant with the given value. When you declare a constant such as "PI" using the method shown above, each machine your script runs upon can have as many digits of accuracy as it can use. Also, your program will be easier to read, more likely to be maintained (and maintained correctly), and far less likely to send a space probe to the wrong planet because nobody noticed the one equation in which you wrote 3.14195. When a constant is used in an expression, perl replaces it with its value at compile time, and may then optimize the expression further. In particular, any code in an "if (CONSTANT)" block will be optimized away if the constant is false. NOTES As with all "use" directives, defining a constant happens at compile time. Thus, it's probably not correct to put a constant declaration inside of a conditional statement (like "if ($foo) { use constant ... }"). Constants defined using this module cannot be interpolated into strings like variables. However, concatenation works just fine: print "Pi equals PI...\n"; # WRONG: does not expand "PI" print "Pi equals ".PI."...\n"; # right Even though a reference may be declared as a constant, the reference may point to data which may be changed, as this code shows. use constant ARRAY => [ 1,2,3,4 ]; print ARRAY->[1]; ARRAY->[1] = " be changed"; print ARRAY->[1]; Dereferencing constant references incorrectly (such as using an array subscript on a constant hash reference, or vice versa) will be trapped at compile time. Constants belong to the package they are defined in. To refer to a constant defined in another package, specify the full package name, as in "Some::Package::CONSTANT". Constants may be exported by modules, and may also be called as either class or instance methods, that is, as "Some::Package->CONSTANT" or as "$obj->CONSTANT" where $obj is an instance of "Some::Package". Subclasses may define their own constants to override those in their base class. The use of all caps for constant names is merely a convention, although it is recommended in order to make constants stand out and to help avoid collisions with other barewords, keywords, and subroutine names. Constant names must begin with a letter or underscore. Names beginning with a double underscore are reserved. Some poor choices for names will generate warnings, if warnings are enabled at compile time. List constants Constants may be lists of more (or less) than one value. A constant with no values evaluates to "undef" in scalar context. Note that con- stants with more than one value do not return their last value in scalar context as one might expect. They currently return the number of values, but this may change in the future. Do not use constants with multiple values in scalar context. NOTE: This implies that the expression defining the value of a constant is evaluated in list context. This may produce surprises: use constant TIMESTAMP => localtime; # WRONG! use constant TIMESTAMP => scalar localtime; # right The first line above defines "TIMESTAMP" as a 9-element list, as returned by localtime() in list context. To set it to the string returned by localtime() in scalar context, an explicit "scalar" keyword is required. List constants are lists, not arrays. To index or slice them, they must be placed in parentheses. my @workdays = WEEKDAYS[1 .. 5]; # WRONG! my @workdays = (WEEKDAYS)[1 .. 5]; # right Defining multiple constants at once Instead of writing multiple "use constant" statements, you may define multiple constants in a single statement by giving, instead of the con- stant name, a reference to a hash where the keys are the names of the constants to be defined. Obviously, all constants defined using this method must have a single value. use constant { FOO => "A single value", BAR => "This", "won't", "work!", # Error! }; This is a fundamental limitation of the way hashes are constructed in Perl. The error messages produced when this happens will often be quite cryptic -- in the worst case there may be none at all, and you'll only later find that something is broken. When defining multiple constants, you cannot use the values of other constants defined in the same declaration. This is because the calling package doesn't know about any constant within that group until after the "use" statement is finished. use constant { BITMASK => 0xAFBAEBA8, NEGMASK => ~BITMASK, # Error! }; Magic constants Magical values and references can be made into constants at compile time, allowing for way cool stuff like this. (These error numbers aren't totally portable, alas.) use constant E2BIG => ($! = 7); print E2BIG, "\n"; # something like "Arg list too long" print 0+E2BIG, "\n"; # "7" You can't produce a tied constant by giving a tied scalar as the value. References to tied variables, however, can be used as constants without any problems. TECHNICAL NOTES In the current implementation, scalar constants are actually inlinable subroutines. As of version 5.004 of Perl, the appropriate scalar con- stant is inserted directly in place of some subroutine calls, thereby saving the overhead of a subroutine call. See "Constant Functions" in perlsub for details about how and when this happens. In the rare case in which you need to discover at run time whether a particular constant has been declared via this module, you may use this function to examine the hash %constant::declared. If the given constant name does not include a package name, the current package is used. sub declared ($) { use constant 1.01; # don't omit this! my $name = shift; $name =~ s/^::/main::/; my $pkg = caller; my $full_name = $name =~ /::/ ? $name : "${pkg}::$name"; $constant::declared{$full_name}; } BUGS In the current version of Perl, list constants are not inlined and some symbols may be redefined without generating a warning. It is not possible to have a subroutine or a keyword with the same name as a constant in the same package. This is probably a Good Thing. A constant with a name in the list "STDIN STDOUT STDERR ARGV ARGVOUT ENV INC SIG" is not allowed anywhere but in package "main::", for tech- nical reasons. Unlike constants in some languages, these cannot be overridden on the command line or via environment variables. You can get into trouble if you use constants in a context which auto- matically quotes barewords (as is true for any subroutine call). For example, you can't say $hash{CONSTANT} because "CONSTANT" will be interpreted as a string. Use $hash{CONSTANT()} or $hash{+CONSTANT} to prevent the bareword quoting mechanism from kicking in. Similarly, since the "=>" operator quotes a bareword immediately to its left, you have to say "CONSTANT() => 'value'" (or simply use a comma in place of the big arrow) instead of "CONSTANT => 'value'". AUTHOR Tom Phoenix, , with help from many other folks. Multiple constant declarations at once added by Casey West, . Documentation mostly rewritten by Ilmari Karonen, . COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 1997, 1999 Tom Phoenix This module is free software; you can redistribute it or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. perl v5.8.7 2001-09-22 constant(3perl)

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