Editing Statement (computer science) (section)

{{Short description|A section of code that details a specific command}}
In [[computer programming]], a '''statement''' is a [[Syntax (programming languages)|syntactic]] unit of an [[Imperative programming|imperative programming language]] that expresses some action to be carried out.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/statement.html | title = statement | date = September 1996 | publisher = webopedia | access-date = 2015-03-03}}</ref> A [[Computer program|program]] written in such a language is formed by a sequence of one or more statements. A statement may have internal components (e.g. [[Expression (computer science)|expressions]]).

Many programming languages (e.g. [[Ada (programming language)|Ada]], [[Algol 60]], [[C (programming language)|C]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]]) make a distinction between statements and [[Declaration (computer programming)|definitions/declarations]]. A definition or declaration specifies the data on which a program is to operate, while a statement specifies the actions to be taken with that data.

Statements which cannot contain other statements are ''simple''; those which can contain other statements are ''compound''.<ref name=ALGOL60>{{cite web|url=http://www.masswerk.at/algol60/report.htm |at=Section "4.1" |title=Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60 |first1=J.W. |last1=Backus |first2=F.L. |last2=Bauer |first3=J. |last3=Green |first4=C. |last4=Katz |first5=J. |last5=McCarthy |first6=P. |last6=Naur |first7=A.J. |last7=Perlis |first8=H. |last8=Rutishauser |first9=K. |last9=Samuelson |first10=B. |last10=Vauquois |first11=J.H. |last11=Wegstein |first12=A. |last12=van Wijngaarden |first13=M. |last13=Woodger |editor-first1= Peter |editor-last1=Naur |website=mass:werk |access-date=January 23, 2021}}</ref>

The appearance of a statement (and indeed a program) is determined by its [[Syntax (programming languages)|syntax]] or grammar. The meaning of a statement is determined by its [[Semantics (computer science)|semantics]].