Primitive types are data types intrinsic to the language, not objects generated from a class. The source code representation of a fixed value is a literal, which is directly represented in your code without the need for computation. In Java SE 7, binary literals can be generated. Decimal, octal, hexadecimal, and binary number systems can be employed to express integral types (byte, short, int, and long).

E or e (for scientific notation), F or f (32-bit float literal), and D or d (64-bit double literal) are also available for expressing floating point types (float and double). Unicode (UTF-16) characters may be present in literals of the char and String types, but they should always be enclosed in single quotes, while string literals should be enclosed in double quotes.

The Java programming language supports a limited number of special escape sequences for char and String literals, including b (backspace), t (tab), n (line feed), f (form feed), r (carriage return), ” (double quote), ‘ (single quote), and \ (backslash).

A unique null literal can be employed as a value for any reference type, except primitive types. Testing for the presence of a null value is the only feasible course of action, and null is frequently employed in software as a denoter to denote that a particular object is unavailable.

Lastly, there is a unique type of literal known as a class literal, defined by appending “.class” to the end of a type name.