Procedural programming

Procedural programming is a programming paradigm based upon the concept of the procedure call. Procedures, also known as routines, subroutines, methods, or functions (not to be confused with mathematical functions, but similar to those used in functional programming) simply contain a series of computational steps to be carried out. Any given procedure might be called at any point during a program's execution, including by other procedures or itself.

Related Topics:
Programming paradigm - Subroutine - Functional programming

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Procedural programming is often a better choice than simple sequential or unstructured programming in many situations which involve moderate complexity or which require significant ease of maintainability. Possible benefits:

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• The ability to re-use the same code in at different places in the program without copying it.
• An easier way to keep track of program flow than a collection of "GOTO" or "JUMP" statements. (Which can turn a large, complicated program into so-called "spaghetti code".)
• The ability to be strongly modular or structured.
 
Procedural programming: Procedures and modularity ►