constant folding

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

constant folding

   <compiler> A {compiler} {optimisation} technique where
   constant subexpressions are evaluated at {compile time}.  This
   is usually only applied to built-in numerical and {boolean}
   operators whereas {partial evaluation} is more general in that
   expressions involving user-defined functions may also be
   evaluated at compile time.

   (1997-02-20)