A literal is the source-code representation of a value of a primitive, String, or null. The Java Language Specification defines the lexical structure used for IntegerLiterals, FloatingPointLiterals, CharacterLiterals, and StringLiterals:
IntegerLiteral: see Java Language Specification... FloatingPointLiteral: see Java Language Specification... CharacterLiteral: see Java Language Specification... StringLiteral: see Java Language Specification... BooleanLiteral: true false NullLiteral: null Literal: IntegerLiteral FloatingPointLiteral BooleanLiteral CharacterLiteral StringLiteral NullLiteral