Language construct

In computer programming, a language construct is a syntactically allowable part of a program that may be formed from one or more lexical tokens in accordance with the rules of the programming language, as defined by in the ISO/IEC 2382 standard (ISO/IEC JTC 1). A term is defined as a "linguistic construct in a conceptual schema language that refers to an entity". While the terms "language construct" and "control structure" are often used synonymously, there are additional types of logical constructs within a computer program, including variables, expressions, functions, or modules. Control flow statements (such as conditionals, foreach loops, while loops, etc.) are language constructs, not functions. So while (true) is a language construct, while add(10) is a function call.

Syntactically valid part of a program formed from lexical tokens

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Language construct" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In computer programming, a language construct is a syntactically allowable part of a program that may be formed from one or more lexical tokens in accordance with the rules of the programming language, as defined by in the ISO/IEC 2382 standard (ISO/IEC JTC 1).^[1] A term is defined as a "linguistic construct in a conceptual schema language that refers to an entity".^[1]

While the terms "language construct" and "control structure" are often used synonymously, there are additional types of logical constructs within a computer program, including variables, expressions, functions, or modules.

Control flow statements (such as conditionals, foreach loops, while loops, etc.) are language constructs, not functions. So while (true) is a language construct, while add(10) is a function call.

Examples of language constructs

[edit]

In PHP print is a language construct.^[2]

<?php
print 'Hello world';
?>

is the same as:

<?php
print('Hello world');
?>

In Java a class is written in this format:

public class MyClass {
    //Code . . . . . .
}

In C++ a class is written in this format:

class MyCPlusPlusClass {
    //Code . . . .
};

References

[edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} "ISO/IEC 2382, Information technology — Vocabulary".
2. ^ "PHP: print - Manual". www.php.net. Retrieved 2022-11-18.

This programming-language-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

• v
• t
• e