Programming paradigm

A programming paradigm is a fundamental style of computer programming, serving as a way of building the structure and elements of computer programs. Capabilities and styles of various programming languages are defined by their supported programming paradigms; some programming languages are designed to follow only one paradigm, while others support multiple paradigms.

Programming paradigms that are often distinguished include imperative, declarative, functional, object-oriented, procedural, logic and symbolic programming. With different paradigms, programs can be seen and built in different ways; for example, in object-oriented programming, a program is a collection of objects interacting in explicitly defined ways, while in declarative programming the computer is told only what the problem is, not how to actually solve it.

Overview

Just as software engineering (as a process) is defined by differing methodologies, so the programming languages (as models of computation) are defined by differing paradigms. Some languages are designed to support one particular paradigm (Smalltalk supports object-oriented programming, Haskell supports functional programming), while other programming languages support multiple paradigms (such as Object Pascal, C++, Java, C#, Scala, Visual Basic, Common Lisp, Scheme, Perl, Python, Ruby, Oz and F#). For example, programs written in C++ or Object Pascal can be purely procedural, purely object-oriented, or they can contain elements of both or other paradigms. Software designers and programmers decide how to use those paradigm elements.