Here is a real case of data structure. Assume that I put tripples of integers in array. And I call them VALUE, NEXT, and PREV. I declare the following constants: static final int VALUE = 0; static final int NEXT = 1; static final int PREV = 2; static final int COUNT = 3; and the following methods: int getValue(int[] a, int i) { return a[i * COUNT + VALUE]); int getNext(int[] a, int i) { return a[i * COUNT + NEXT]); int getPrev(int[] a, int i) { return a[i * COUNT + PREV]); In getValue method IDEA compains that "+ VALUE" expression is pointless, since I'm adding just zero. It should not complain when I add a constant, since in the next version of the code I might change constants and VALUE shall becomes something other than zero.