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A statement is the minimal unit of structuring in imperative programming languages.
The following are the major generic kinds of statements with examples in Pascal, a typical imperative language:
- definition:
TYPE SALARY = INTEGER
- declaration:
VAR A:INTEGER
- assignment:
A := A + 1
- sequence:
A := A + 1; WRITELN(A)
- conditional:
IF A > 3 THEN WRITELN(A) ELSE WRITELN("NOT YET") END
- loop:
FOR A:=1 TO 10 DO WRITELN(A) END
- call:
CLEARSCREEN()
Statements contrast with expressions in that the former do not return results and are executed solely for their side effects, while the latter always return a result and often do not have side effects at all.
In block-structured programming languages, statements are grouped into statement blocks.
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