In
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...
, an expression is a
syntactic
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
entity in a
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming l ...
that may be evaluated to determine its value. It is a combination of one or more
constants
Constant or The Constant may refer to:
Mathematics
* Constant (mathematics), a non-varying value
* Mathematical constant, a special number that arises naturally in mathematics, such as or
Other concepts
* Control variable or scientific const ...
,
variables,
functions, and
operator
Operator may refer to:
Mathematics
* A symbol indicating a mathematical operation
* Logical operator or logical connective in mathematical logic
* Operator (mathematics), mapping that acts on elements of a space to produce elements of another ...
s that the programming language interprets (according to its particular
rules of precedence and of
association) and computes to produce ("to return", in a
stateful
In information technology and computer science, a system is described as stateful if it is designed to remember preceding events or user interactions; the remembered information is called the state of the system.
The set of states a system can oc ...
environment) another value. This process, for
mathematica