While constants and read-only variable share many similarities, there are some important differences:

☛ Constants are evaluated at compile time, while the read-only variables are evaluated at run time.

☛ Constants support only value-type variables (the only exception being strings), while read-only variables can hold reference-type variables.

☛ Constants should be used when the value is not changing during run time, and read-only variables are used mostly when their actual value is unknown before run time.

☛ Read-only variables can only be initialised at the time of declaration or in a constructor.