Computer programming terms

Updated: 11/12/2023 by Computer Hope

Programming terms with full definitions and information on each term. Explore this list of over 750 terms like ASCII, regex, 5GL, and delimiter. Navigate quickly through the list by clicking one of the letters below; for example, click 'V' to find terms like 'variable' in the 'V' section.

Programmer - Programming languages - Database terms - Web design terms
Top 10 programming terms
Snippet of programming code on a computer screen

Programming language
ASCII
HTML
Pipe
NBSP
Program
1GL
Data type
Regex
Curly bracket

Number
%1, %1, and \1 variables

$1
%1
\1
1GL
2GL
3GL
4GL
5GL

A
Algorithm flow chart

A-0
Abend
Absolute address
Absolute Coding
Access violation
Acid
ACM
ActionScript
Action statement
ActiveX
Ada
Adaptive technology
Add
ADO
Advanced SCSI Programming Interface
Aggregate
Agile development methods
Agile Manifesto
AJAX
Alert
Algol
Algorithm
Allocate
Altair BASIC
Ambient Occlusion
AOP
API
APK
Applet
Argument
Arithmetic
Arithmetic operator
Array
Array of pointers
ASCII
ASM
ASP
ASPI
Assembler
Assembly
Assembly language
Associative operation
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
AutoHotkey
Automata-based programming
Automated unit testing
Automation

B
AND, OR, NOT, XOR boolean operations

Babel
Back-end
Back-face culling
Background thread
Backpropagation neural network
Base address
Basic
Batch file
Batch job
BCPL
Bean
BeanShell
Binary Search
Bind
Bit shift
Bitwise operator
Block
Block-based programming
Block-level element
BOM
Bool
Boolean
Boolean data type
Bracket
Branch
Brooks
Browse
Bubble sort
Bug
Bugfairy
Bug tracking
Build computer
Bytecode

C
compiled programming language

C
C++
C#
Call
Callback
Camel book
CamelCase
Capture
CC
Cell style
CGI
Chaos model
Char
Character code
Character encoding
Character set
Circuit satisfiability problem
Class
Class
Classpath
Clojure
CLOS
Closing block
Closure
CLR
COBOL
Cocoa
Cocoa touch
Code
Code page
Code refactoring
CoffeeScript
Command
Command language
Comment
Common business oriented language
Common Gateway Interface
Commutative operation
Compilation
Compile
Compiler
Complementarity
Component
Compute
Computer instructions
Computer science
Concat
Concatenate
Concatenation
Concurrency
Condition
Conditional expression
Conditional statement
Constant
Constructor
Constructor chaining
Content migration
Control flow
CPAN
CPL
Crapplet
CS
CSAT
C sharp
CSS
CSS compressor
CSS editor
Curly bracket
Curry
CVS
Cygwin

D
Sparse matrix

D
DarkBASIC
Dart
Data-flow analysis
Data flow diagram
Dataflow Programming
Datalog
Data source
Data structure
Data type
DDE
DDK
Dead code
Debug
Debugger
Debugging
Declaration
Declarative programming
Declare
Decompiler
Decrement
Deductive database
Delimiter
Demote
Dense matrix
Dependent variable
Deprecated
Dereference operator
Developer
Dev Home
DHTML
Die
Diff
Direct address
Disassembler
Discrete optimization
Div
Django
DML
Do
DOM
Dragon book
Dribbleware
Dump
Dword
Dylan programming language
Dynamic binding
Dynamic dump

E
Fictional Execute key on a keyboard

Eclipse
ECMAScript
Eight queens problem
Element
Elixir
Ellipsis
Else
Else if
Elsif
Embedded Java
Encapsulation
Enclosing block
Encode
Endian
Endless loop
EOF
Epoch
Eq
Equal
Erlang
Error
Errorlevel
Esac
Esc
Escape
Escape character
Escape sequence
Eval
Event
Event-driven programming
Event handler
Event listener
Exception
Exception handling
Exec
Exists
Exit status
Exponent
Exponential backoff
Expression

F
foreach loop statement in Perl or Linux command

F#
Factorial
False
False positive
Feature complete
Fifth generation language
First-class object
First generation language
Flag
Flat file
Floating-point
Foo
For
Foreach
Foreign key
Forth
Forth generation language
FORTRAN
F programming language
Framework
Front end
Full stack developer
Function
Functional programming
Function call
Fuzz testing

G
Game of Life

Game of Life
Gang of four
Garbage collection
Gaussian pyramid
GCC
Ge
General-purpose language
Generation languages
Genetic programming
GIGO
Git
GitHub
Glitch
Glob
Glue code
Go
Golang
Go language
Googolplex
Goto
GPL
Grasshopper
Greedy
Greedy matching
GT
GTK
GW-BASIC

H
haskell programming language

Hackathon
HAL
Halting problem
Hard code
Hash
Haskell
HDML
Heap
Hello world
Heroku
Heuristic evaluation
Hex editor
Hiew
High-level language
HTML
Human error
Hungarian notation
Hwclock
Hypertext Markup Language

I
Four colored icons each with two arrows in a loop layout

IDE
Idempotence
If
If else
If statement
Immutable object
Imperative programming
Implicit parallelism
Increment
Indirect address
Indirection operator
Inherent error
Inheritance
Inline
Input/output statement
Instance
Instantiation
Instructions
Instruction Storage Interrupt
Int
Integer
Integrated Development Environment
IntelliJ IDEA
Intermediate language
Interpreted
Interpreter
Invalid
IOCCC
IPC
ISAPI
ISI
Iteration

J
JavaScript logo

Java
JavaBean
Javac
Java champion
Java EE
JavaFX
Java ME
Java Native Interface
Java reserved words
JavaScript
JavaScriptCore
Javax
JBuilder
JCL
JDBC
JDK
JHTML
JIL
JIT
JNI
JRE
JScript
JSON
JSP
JSR
Julia
Jupyter
JVM

K

Karel
Kit
Kludge
Kluge
Knights of Lambda Calculus
Kotlin

L
Blue infinity symbol

Label
Lambda calculus
LangChain
Language
Language processor
Large language model
Lazy matching
Le
Lexical analysis
Lexicon
Library
Life cycle
Linker
Link time
LISP
Literal
Literal string
LiveScript
LLM
LLVM
Local optimum
Logical operation
Logic learning machine
Logic programming
LOGO
Lookup table
Loony bin
Loop
Loophole
Loosely typed language
Low-code
Low-level language
LT
Lua
LUT

M
MATLAB logo

m1m0
Machine language
Magic quotes
Map
Markup language
Math
Matlab
Mbean
Memoization
Mercurial
Meta
Metacharacter
Metaclass
Metalanguage
Metasyntactic variable
Meta tag
Method
Method overloading
Metro
Microsoft BASIC
Middleware
Mimo
Mod
Modula
Modula-2
Modular programming
Module
Modulo
Monkey testing
Monte Carlo Method
MSDN
MSVC
Multi-pass compiler
Multiply
MUMPS
Mutex
My

N
Microsoft .NET

/n
NaN
Native compiler
Native language
Natural language
NBSP
NDA
Ne
Nest
Nested function
Nested loops join
.NET
Netlify
Newline
Nil pointer
Nim
Nimrod
No-code
Node.js
Nodelist
Non-contiguous data structure
Non-disclosure agreement
Nonexecutable statement
NO-OPeration instructions
NP-C
NP-complete
Null
Null character
Null pointer
NumPy

O
Exclamation point and equal sign representing not equal operator

Oberon
Obfuscated code
Obfuscation
Object
Object code
Object file
Objective-C
Object module
Object-oriented
Object-oriented programming
Obtuse
OCaml
Octave
ODBC
One-pass compiler
OnMouseOver
OOP
Opcode
Open Database Connectivity
OpenGL polygon
Operand
Operation code
Operator
Operator associatively
Operator associativity
Operator precedence
Order of operations
OR operator
Overflow error
Overload

P
Perl logo

Package
Parenthesis
Parse
Pascal
Pascal case
Pastebin
P-code
PDL
PEAR
Perl
Persistent memory
PersonalJava
PHP
Phrase tag
Pick
Pickling
PicoJava
Pipe
Pipeline
Pixel shader
POD
Pointer
Polymorphism
Pop
Portable language
Positional parameter
Print
Printf
Private
Private variable
Procedural language
Procedure
Process
Program
Program generator
Program listing
Programmable
Programmer
Programming
Programming in logic
Programming language
Programming tool
Prolog
Properties
Pseudo-class
Pseudocode
Pseudolanguage
Pseudo-operation
Pseudorandom
Public
Pull
PureBasic
Push
Python
Pythonic
Python pickling

Q

Qi
QT
Quick-and-dirty

R
Return statement

/r
Race condition
Racket
RAD
Random
Random seed
Range
Rank
RCS
RCW
RDF
React
React Native
Real number
Recompile
Recursion
Recursive
Regex
Regular expression
Reia
Relational algebra
Religion of Chi
REM
Remark
Repeat counter
Repetition
REPL
Reserved character
Reserved word
Resource Description Framework
Return address
Return statement
Reverse engineering
Revision control
ROM BASIC
Routine
Routing algorithm
RPG
R programming language
Ruby
Run time
Runtime callable wrapper
Rust

S
Spaghetti code

Safe font
Sandbox
Say
Scala
Scalar
Scanf
Schema matching
Scheme programming language
Scratch
Script
SDK
Second generation language
Section
Security Descriptor Definition Language
Seed
Segfault
Semantics
Semaphore
Sentient
Separator
Sequence
Server-side
Server-side scripting
Servlet
S-expression
SGML
Shebang
Shell
Shell scripts
Shift
Short-circuit operator
Signedness
Simula
Simulated annealing
Single step
Smalltalk
SMIL
Snippet
SOAP
Socket
Soft
Software development phases
Software development process
Software engineering
Software library
Software life cycle
Software release life cycle
Source
Source code
Source computer
Source data
SourceForge
Spaghetti code
Sparse matrix
Sparsity
Special purpose language
SPL
Spooling
SQL
SQLite
Stack
Stack pointer
Standard attribute
Statement
Stdin
Stream processing
String
Strongly typed language
Stubroutine
Stylesheet
Submit
Subprogram
Subroutine
Subscript
Substring
Subtract
Subversion
Superclass
Swift
Switch statement
Syntactic sugar
Syntax
Syntax error
System development
Systems engineer
Systems Programming Language

T
tuple logo

Tail recursion
Tcl
Tcl/Tk
Tech stack
Ternary
Ternary operator
Tessellation
Theoretical computer science
Third-generation programming language
Thread
Thunk
Tk
Token
ToolboX
Transaction
Transcompiler
True
True BASIC
Trunk
Tuple
Turbo Pascal
Turing completeness

U

Udacity
UInt8
UInt16
UInt32
Unary operator
Undefined
Undefined variable
Underflow
Unescape
Unit test
Unity
Unreal Engine
Unshift

V

Value
Var
Variable
Variable expression
Variable-length field
VB
VBScript
Vector
VHDL
VIM
Visual Basic
Visual Studio
Void
Vue
Vue.js

W

W3Schools
Wasm
Waterfall model
WDF
WebAssembly
Web development
WebGL
While
Whole number
Wide character
Windows Driver Kit
WML
Workspace

X

XML
XNA
XOR operator
XOXO
XSL
XSLT

Y

YAML
Y combinator

Z

Z-buffering
Zombie

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