Editing Array programming (section)

===Scalar languages===
In scalar languages such as [[C (programming language)|C]] and [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]], operations apply only to single values, so ''a''+''b'' expresses the addition of two numbers. In such languages, adding one array to another requires indexing and looping, the coding of which is tedious.
<syntaxhighlight lang="c">
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
    for (j = 0; j < n; j++)
        a[i][j] += b[i][j];
</syntaxhighlight>

In array-based languages, for example in Fortran, the nested for-loop above can be written in array-format in one line,
<syntaxhighlight lang="fortran">
a = a + b
</syntaxhighlight>
or alternatively, to emphasize the array nature of the objects,
<syntaxhighlight lang="fortran">
a(:,:) = a(:,:) + b(:,:)
</syntaxhighlight>

While scalar languages like C do not have native array programming elements as part of the language proper, this does not mean programs written in these languages never take advantage of the underlying techniques of vectorization (i.e., utilizing a CPU's [[Single instruction, multiple data|vector-based instructions]] if it has them or by using multiple CPU cores). Some C compilers like [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] at some optimization levels detect and vectorize sections of code that its heuristics determine would benefit from it. Another approach is given by the [[OpenMP]] API, which allows one to parallelize applicable sections of code by taking advantage of multiple CPU cores.