Editing Executable (section)

{{Short description|File that causes a computer to follow indicated instructions}}
{{About|a general type of computer file|the specific file type used in some operating systems|.exe}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021|cs1-dates=y}}
{{Use list-defined references|date=December 2021}}
{{Program execution}}
[[File:Binary executable file2.png|thumb|A [[hex dump]] of an executable [[real mode]] loader. The first column consists of [[byte address|address]]es of the first byte in the second column, which comprises bytes of data in [[hexadecimal]] notation ([[Bit numbering#Bit significance and indexing|least significant byte]] first), and the last column consists of the corresponding [[ASCII]] form.<ref name="Celovi_2022"/>]]

In [[computer science]], '''executable code''', an '''executable file''', or an '''executable program''', sometimes simply referred to as an '''executable''' or '''binary''', causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded [[instruction (computer science)|instruction]]s",<ref name="MW_2008"/> as opposed to a [[data (computing)|data file]] that must be interpreted ([[parser|parsed]]) by an [[interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] to be functional.<ref name="Mueller_2007" />

The exact interpretation depends upon the use. "Instructions" is traditionally taken to mean [[machine code]] instructions for a physical [[central processing unit|CPU]].<ref name="GFG_2015"/> In some contexts, a file containing scripting instructions (such as [[bytecode]]) may also be considered executable.