<aside> 🌎 The fundamental structure and approach of a programming language

</aside>

<aside> 👇 Exam definition A programming paradigm describes the different types or approaches in programming languages (1 mark) that are needed to solve different problems more effectively (1 mark).

</aside>

Procedural

• Sequential
• Constructs: variable assignment, selection, iteration, procedures etc
• The simplest programming paradigm
• Examples: C, Python etc where most algorithms are written in a linear fashion. However, this may not always be appropriate (i.e. with a GUI), thus a different paradigm may be better suited
• They obey instructions
• Carry out actions/calculations
• Allows the programmer to define precisely each step when performing a task
• Allows tight control over the underlying operation of the hardware
• Used in programs where similar operations may be carried out at varying stages of the program execution

Non-procedural

• Allow programmers to specify the results they want without specifying how to solve the program
• To do with rules/making queries/facts
• Used in database interrogation where retrieving answers are more important than the exact steps required to calculate the result
• Applications: AI, grammar checking, language translation

Visual

• Uses intuitive user interfaces to help build programs rather than relying solely on text