Editing Magic number (programming) (section)

{{Short description|Sequence of bytes used to identify or indicate the format of a file}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019|cs1-dates=y}}

In [[computer programming]], a '''magic number''' is any of the following:

* A unique value with unexplained meaning or multiple occurrences which could (preferably) be replaced with a named constant
* A constant numerical or text value used to identify a [[file format]] or protocol {{crossref|(for files, see [[List of file signatures]]}})
* A distinctive unique value that is unlikely to be mistaken for other meanings (e.g., [[Universally unique identifier|Universally Unique Identifiers]])