Editing Algorithm (section)

== Definition ==
{{For|a detailed presentation of the various points of view on the definition of "algorithm"|Algorithm characterizations}}

One informal definition is "a set of rules that precisely defines a sequence of operations",{{sfnp|Stone|1971|p=8}} which would include all [[computer program]]s (including programs that do not perform numeric calculations), and any prescribed [[bureaucratic]] procedure<ref>
{{cite book |last1=Simanowski |first1=Roberto |author-link1=Roberto Simanowski |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RJV5DwAAQBAJ |title=The Death Algorithm and Other Digital Dilemmas |date=2018 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262536370 |series=Untimely Meditations |volume=14 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |page=147 |translator1-last=Chase |translator1-first=Jefferson |quote=[...] the next level of abstraction of central bureaucracy: globally operating algorithms. |access-date=27 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222120705/https://books.google.com/books?id=RJV5DwAAQBAJ |archive-date=December 22, 2019 |url-status=live}}
</ref>
or [[Cookbook|cook-book]] [[recipe]].<ref>
{{cite book |last1=Dietrich |first1=Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-wt1aZrGXLYC |title=The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences |publisher=MIT Press |year=1999 |isbn=9780262731447 |editor1-last=Wilson |editor1-first=Robert Andrew |series=MIT Cognet library |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publication-date=2001 |page=11 |chapter=Algorithm |quote=An algorithm is a recipe, method, or technique for doing something. |access-date=22 July 2020 |editor2-last=Keil |editor2-first=Frank C.}}
</ref> In general, a program is an algorithm only if it stops eventually<ref>Stone requires that "it must terminate in a finite number of steps" (Stone 1973:7–8).</ref>—even though [[infinite loop#Intentional looping|infinite loop]]s may sometimes prove desirable. {{Harvtxt|Boolos|Jeffrey|1974, 1999|ref=CITEREFBoolosJeffrey1999}} define an algorithm to be an explicit set of instructions for determining an output, that can be followed by a computing machine or a human who could only carry out specific elementary operations on symbols''.''<ref>Boolos and Jeffrey 1974, 1999:19</ref>

Most algorithms are intended to be [[Implementation|implement]]ed as [[computer program]]s. However, algorithms are also implemented by other means, such as in a [[biological neural network]] (for example, the [[human brain]] performing [[arithmetic]] or an insect looking for food), in an [[electrical circuit]], or a mechanical device.