procedural language

A programming language that requires programming discipline, such as C/C++, Java, COBOL, FORTRAN, Perl and JavaScript. Also called an "imperative language," programmers writing in such languages must develop a proper order of actions in order to solve the problem, based on a knowledge of data processing and programming. Contrast with non-procedural language.

The following dBASE examples show procedural and non-procedural ways to list a file. Procedural and non-procedural languages are also considered third and fourth-generation languages.

    Procedural (3GL)        Non-Procedural (4GL)
    USE FILEX               USE FILEX
    DO WHILE .NOT. EOF      LIST NAME, AMOUNTDUE
      ? NAME, AMOUNTDUE
      SKIP
    ENDDO

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(language)

procedural language - Any programming language in which the programmer specifies an explicit sequences of steps to follow to produce a result (an algorithm). The term should not be confused with "imperative language" - a language that specifies explicit manipulation of state. An example (non-imperative) procedural language is LOGO, which specifies sequences of steps to perform but does not have an internal state. Other procedural languages include Basic, Pascal, C, and Modula-2. Both procedural and imperative languages are in contrast to declarative languages, in which the programmer specifies neither explicit steps nor explicit state manipulation.