Magic Number (programming)
In computer programming, the term magic number has multiple meanings. It could refer to one or more of the following:
- A constant numerical or text value used to identify a file format or protocol; for files, see List of file signatures
- Distinctive unique values that are unlikely to be mistaken for other meanings (e.g., Globally Unique Identifiers)
- Unique values with unexplained meaning or multiple occurrences which could (preferably) be replaced with named constants
Read more about Magic Number (programming): Unnamed Numerical Constants, Magic GUIDs, Magic Debug Values
Famous quotes containing the words magic and/or number:
“To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of art over trash, the triumph of magic over the brute.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“A great number of the disappointments and mishaps of the troubled world are the direct result of literature and the allied arts. It is our belief that no human being who devotes his life and energy to the manufacture of fantasies can be anything but fundamentally inadequate”
—Christopher Hampton (b. 1946)