Explain Procedural and Non Procedural Programming Languages

After reading this topic you will be able to clearly understand the meanings of Procedural and Non Procedural Languages and the differences between procedural and non procedural languages. 

Here is a brief note on procedural and Non Procedural Computer Languages:

Procedural Languages

Explain Differences between Procedural Languages and Non Procedural Languages in Computer Programming

In procedural languages a program is written as a sequence of instructions. We have to specify what to do and how to do. In procedural languages a program will tell the whole step by step procedure to perform a particular task or job.  So we provide a sequence of instructions and these instructions are executed in the given specified order. These instructions are written in order to solve a specific problem.
Procedural languages are also called 3rd Generation languages or 3GL.3GL languages are

Examples of procedural languages 

Examples of Procedural languages are FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, Pascal, C Language, C++, and Java etc.

a)    FORTRAN (FORrmula TRANslation)

FORTRAN is generally used by mathematicians to solve mathematical problems.

b)    COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language)

COBOL is one of the first popular programming languages for businesses.

c)    C – Language

C Language is one of the most popular high level programming languages. C language is used for System programming as well as for application programming. C language can be used to develop operating systems and application programs.

d)    BASIC (Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Language)

BASIC was developed for teaching purposes. It was used to teach how to program to students and beginners.

 Non-Procedural Languages

In non-procedural languages we have to specify only “what to do” and not “how to do”.  For example, SQL (structured query language) is a non procedural language. It is used in database systems.

Non Procedural languages are Fourth Generation Languages called 4GLs. In Non procedural languages we do not have to write whole set of instructions according to the logic of the program. But only one statement may be enough in a non procedural language to perform the whole job, for example select statement of SQL. Another example of non procedural languages is RPG

    a) SQL

SQL is the short form of Structured Query Language. Structured Query Language is the mopst popular database query language. SQL is used in Database Management Systems like Microsoft Access, ORACLE, MS SQL Server and MySQL.

    b) RPG

RPG is another example of a non procedural language. RPG stands for Report Program Generator. It is used for generating professional business reports.