> I don’t need a keyword just to tell me that a variable isn’t modified during its lifetime. I agree that this isn't very well argued, and variable re-use is a

> I don’t need a keyword just to tell me that a variable isn’t modified during its lifetime. I agree that this isn't very well argued, and variable re-use is a common source of bugs – especially variables that are used several times in a single function for different purposes. On a similar point, Java has `final` instead of `const` and it does apply to local variables, including to guarantee that a variable is not only not modified, but set exactly once. Something like this: final String foo; if (condition) { foo = someValue(); } else { foo = otherValue(); } Omitting any of the assignments leads to a compilation error. It works with complex if conditions with multiple branches, and even with `switch`. If a branch throws an exception, that's also acceptable as the variable is guaranteed not to be used below. I find it pretty useful; doesn't C++ provide a similar construct?