Glossary: Syntax

Syntax to computer languages is as grammatical structure is to ordinary languages.

In order for a computer to understand your coded instructions you have to lay those instructions out perfectly correctly. An additional space - the use of a dash instead of an underscore etc. makes the computer code unintelligible to the machine.

Each language has its own syntax - although many have similar characteristics.

When you write a piece of code Syntax highlighting is very useful. It is a feature of many text editors that display text—especially source code. Different colors and fonts are used to classify the code you have written. It points out syntax errors to you. The hHighlighting does not affect the meaning of the text itself; it is made only for human readers/editors to spot structure and mistakes easily.