Possible Duplicate: Why isn’t String.Empty a constant? To make my code more readable I

Question

Editorial Team

Asked: June 15, 20262026-06-15T21:30:32+00:00 2026-06-15T21:30:32+00:00

Possible Duplicate:
Why isn’t String.Empty a constant?

To make my code more readable I tried to assign String.Empty to a constant value:

const string PLATYPUS_ADDED_AND_ACCEPTED = string.Empty;
if (false) { }
else
{
    toolTip = PLATYPUS_ADDED_AND_ACCEPTED;
}

but I get "the expression being added must be constant"

Isn’t String.Empty always the same thing? That seems pretty constant to me.

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Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-06-15T21:30:34+00:00

Editorial Team

string.Empty is a readonly field, not a constant.

The compiler has no way to know this will always be the same value.

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