Statement (computer science)

In computer programming, a statement is the smallest standalone element of an imperative programming language that expresses some action to be carried out.

It is an instruction written in a high-level language that commands the computer to perform a specified action.

A program written in such a language is formed by a sequence of one or more statements.

A statement may have internal components (e.g., expressions).

Many languages (e.g. C) make a distinction between statements, definitions, and expressions:

• A statement only containing executable code.
• A definition declaring an identifier.
• An expression evaluates to a value only.

A distinction can also be made between simple and compound statements, with compound statements contain multiple statements as components.

See also

• Imperative programming
• Programming language
• Programming paradigm

External links

• [ ] @ Wikipedia