Editing Statement (computer science) (section)

==Semantics==

{{main|Semantics (computer science)}}
Semantics is concerned with the meaning of a program. The standards documents for many programming languages use BNF or some equivalent to express the syntax/grammar in a fairly formal and precise way, but the semantics/meaning of the program is generally described using examples and English prose.  This can result in ambiguity.<ref name=Trouble>{{cite web|url=https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~necula/Papers/KnuthTroubleAlgol.pdf|title=The Remaining Trouble Spots in Algol 60 |first1=D. E. |last1=Knuth |date=Jul 1967 |work=The ALGOL Family |access-date=February 24, 2021}}</ref>  In some language descriptions the meaning of compound statements is defined by the use of 'simpler' constructions, e.g. a while loop can be defined by a combination of tests, jumps, and [[Label (computer science)|labels]], using <code>if</code> and <code>goto</code>.

The [[Semantics (computer science)|semantics]] article describes several mathematical/logical formalisms which have been used to specify  semantics in a precise way; these are generally more complicated than BNF, and no single approach is generally accepted as the way to go.  Some approaches effectively define an interpreter for the language, some use formal logic to reason about a program, some attach affixes to syntactic entities to ensure consistency, etc.