Programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

s can be grouped by the number and types of paradigms supported.

Paradigm summaries

A concise reference for the programming paradigms listed in this article. *

Concurrent programming Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

– have language constructs for concurrency, these may involve multi-threading, support for distributed computing, message passing, shared resources (including shared memory), or futures ** Actor programming – concurrent computation with ''actors'' that make local decisions in response to the environment (capable of selfish or competitive behaviour) *

Constraint programming Constraint programming (CP) is a paradigm for solving combinatorial problems that draws on a wide range of techniques from artificial intelligence, computer science, and operations research. In constraint programming, users declaratively state t ...

– relations between variables are expressed as constraints (or constraint networks), directing allowable solutions (uses constraint satisfaction or simplex algorithm) * Dataflow programming – forced recalculation of formulas when data values change (e.g.

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

s) *

Declarative programming In computer science, declarative programming is a programming paradigm—a style of building the structure and elements of computer programs—that expresses the logic of a computation without describing its control flow. Many languages that ap ...

– describes what computation should perform, without specifying detailed state changes cf. imperative programming (functional and logic programming are major subgroups of declarative programming) *

Distributed programming Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different networked computers. The components of a distributed system commu ...

– have support for multiple autonomous computers that communicate via computer networks *

Functional programming In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm where programs are constructed by Function application, applying and Function composition (computer science), composing Function (computer science), functions. It is a declarat ...

– uses evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids state and mutable data * Generic programming – uses algorithms written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated as needed for specific types provided as parameters *

Imperative programming In computer science, imperative programming is a programming paradigm of software that uses Statement (computer science), statements that change a program's state (computer science), state. In much the same way that the imperative mood in natural ...

– explicit statements that change a program state *

Logic programming Logic programming is a programming, database and knowledge representation paradigm based on formal logic. A logic program is a set of sentences in logical form, representing knowledge about some problem domain. Computation is performed by applyin ...

– uses explicit mathematical logic for programming *

Metaprogramming Metaprogramming is a computer programming technique in which computer programs have the ability to treat other programs as their data. It means that a program can be designed to read, generate, analyse, or transform other programs, and even modi ...

– writing programs that write or manipulate other programs (or themselves) as their data, or that do part of the work at compile time that would otherwise be done at runtime ** Template metaprogramming – metaprogramming methods in which a compiler uses templates to generate temporary source code, which is merged by the compiler with the rest of the source code and then compiled **

Reflective programming In computer science, reflective programming or reflection is the ability of a process to examine, introspect, and modify its own structure and behavior. Historical background The earliest computers were programmed in their native assembly lang ...

– metaprogramming methods in which a program modifies or extends itself *

Object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of '' objects''. Objects can contain data (called fields, attributes or properties) and have actions they can perform (called procedures or methods and impl ...

– uses data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions (objects) to design programs ** Class-based – object-oriented programming in which inheritance is achieved by defining classes of objects, versus the objects themselves ** Prototype-based – object-oriented programming that avoids classes and implements inheritance via cloning of instances * Pipeline programming – a simple syntax change to add syntax to nest function calls to language originally designed with none * Rule-based programming – a network of rules of thumb that comprise a knowledge base and can be used for expert systems and problem deduction & resolution * Visual programming – manipulating program elements graphically rather than by specifying them textually (e.g.

Simulink Simulink is a MATLAB-based graphical programming environment for modeling, simulating and analyzing multidomain dynamical systems. Its primary interface is a graphical block diagramming tool and a customizable set of block libraries. It offe ...

); also termed ''diagrammatic programming''

Language overview

Notes

Citations

References

* Jim Coplien, ''Multiparadigm Design for C++'', Addison-Wesley Professional, 1998. {{DEFAULTSORT:List of multi-paradigm programming languages Programming paradigms Programming language comparisons

Paradigm summaries

Language overview

See also

Notes

Citations

References