julia

Defining constant global Variables in Julia


In Julia, what is difference between defining a variable as const and defining a variable as const global? Considering the following example, what is the difference if I change const global to const?

#set number of cores
number_cores=7;
addprocs(number_cores)

#include necessary functions
@everywhere include("$(pwd())\\lib.jl");

const global n = 2; # number of observables
const global k = nVAR + 2*n-1; # number of states
const global m = k*q;

pmap(a->parallel_un(a,n,k,m),1:7)

Solution

  • There are two cases:

    1. If you are in the global scope then const and const global are the same;
    2. If you are in some scope other than global then using const is deprecated in Julia 0.7 and using const global is acceptable and defines a global constant.

    Here is an example session:

                   _
       _       _ _(_)_     |  A fresh approach to technical computing
      (_)     | (_) (_)    |  Documentation: https://docs.julialang.org
       _ _   _| |_  __ _   |  Type "?help" for help.
      | | | | | | |/ _` |  |
      | | |_| | | | (_| |  |  Version 0.7.0-DEV.3404 (2018-01-14 21:52 UTC)
     _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |  Commit d569a2923c* (30 days old master)
    |__/                   |  x86_64-w64-mingw32
    
    julia> f() = (const global x = 1)
    f (generic function with 1 method)
    
    julia> f()
    1
    
    julia> x = "a"
    ERROR: invalid redefinition of constant x
    
    julia> g() = (const global y = 1)
    g (generic function with 1 method)
    
    julia> y = 1
    1
    
    julia> g()
    ERROR: cannot declare y constant; it already has a value
    Stacktrace:
     [1] g() at .\REPL[4]:1
     [2] top-level scope