Declaration (computer programming)
Programming language construct specifying an identifier's properties
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Through Computer programming, Syntax (programming languages) and Identifier (computer languages)
Declarations are particularly prominent in languages in the ALGOL tradition, including the BCPL family, most prominently C and C++, and also Pascal. Java uses the term "declaration", though Java does not require separate declarations and definitions.
Declaration vs. definition
One basic dichotomy is whether or not a declaration contains a definition: for example, whether a variable or constant declaration specifies its value, or only its type; and similarly whether a declaration of a function specifies the body (implementation) of the function, or only its type signature. Not all languages make this distinction: in many languages, declarations always include a definition, and may be referred to as either "declarations" or "definitions", depending on the language. However, these concepts are distinguished in languages that require declaration before use (for which forward declarations are used), and in languages where interface and implementation are separated: the interface contains declarations, the implementation contains definitions.
In informal usage, a "declaration" refers only to a pure declaration (types only, no value or body), while a "definition" refers to a declaration that includes a value or body. However, in formal usage (in language specifications), "declaration" includes both of these senses, with finer distinctions by language: in C and C++, a declaration of a function that does not include a body is called a function prototype, while a declaration of a function that does include a body is called a "function definition". In Java declarations occur in two forms. For public methods they can be presented in interfaces as method signatures, which consist of the method names, input types and output type. A similar notation can be used in the definition of abstract methods, which do not contain a definition. The enclosing class can be instantiated, rather a new derived class, which provides the definition of the method, would need to be created in order to create an instance of the class. Starting with Java 8, the lambda expression was included in the language, which could be viewed as a function declaration.
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Declarations and definitions
In the C-family of programming languages, declarations are often collected into header files, which are included in other source files that reference and use these declarations, but don't have access to the definition. The information in the header file provides the interface between code that uses the declaration and that which defines it, a form of information hiding. A declaration is often used in order to access functions or variables defined in different source files, or in a library. A mismatch between the definition type and the declaration type generates a compiler error.
For variables, definitions assign values to an area of memory that was reserved during the declaration phase. For functions, definitions supply the function body. While a variable or function may be declared many times, it is typically defined once (in C++, this is known as the One Definition Rule or ODR).
Dynamic languages such as JavaScript or Python generally allow functions to be redefined, that is, re-bound; a function is a variable much like any other, with a name and a value (the definition).
Here are some examples of declarations that are not definitions, in C:
<span id="mwVQ"></span><span class="k" id="mwVg">extern</span><span class="w" id="mwVw"> </span><span class="kt" id="mwWA">char</span><span class="w" id="mwWQ"> </span><span class="n" id="mwWg">example1</span><span class="p" id="mwWw">;</span> <span class="k" id="mwXA">extern</span><span class="w" id="mwXQ"> </span><span class="kt" id="mwXg">int</span><span class="w" id="mwXw"> </span><span class="n" id="mwYA">example2</span><span class="p" id="mwYQ">;</span> <span class="kt" id="mwYg">void</span><span class="w" id="mwYw"> </span><span class="nf" id="mwZA">example3</span><span class="p" id="mwZQ">(</span><span class="kt" id="mwZg">void</span><span class="p" id="mwZw">);</span>
Here are some examples of declarations that are definitions, again in C:
<span id="mwaw"></span><span class="kt" id="mwbA">char</span><span class="w" id="mwbQ"> </span><span class="n" id="mwbg">example1</span><span class="p" id="mwbw">;</span><span class="w" id="mwcA"> </span><span class="cm" id="mwcQ">/* Outside of a function definition it will be initialized to zero. */</span> <span class="kt" id="mwcg">int</span><span class="w" id="mwcw"> </span><span class="n" id="mwdA">example2</span><span class="w" id="mwdQ"> </span><span class="o" id="mwdg">=</span><span class="w" id="mwdw"> </span><span class="mi" id="mweA">5</span><span class="p" id="mweQ">;</span> <span class="kt" id="mweg">void</span><span class="w" id="mwew"> </span><span class="nf" id="mwfA">example3</span><span class="p" id="mwfQ">(</span><span class="kt" id="mwfg">void</span><span class="p" id="mwfw">)</span><span class="w" id="mwgA"> </span><span class="p" id="mwgQ">{</span><span class="w" id="mwgg"> </span><span class="cm" id="mwgw">/* definition between braces */</span><span class="w" id="mwhA"> </span><span class="p" id="mwhQ">}</span>Undefined variables
In some programming languages, an implicit declaration is provided the first time such a variable is encountered at compile time. In other languages, such a usage is considered to be an error, which may result in a diagnostic message. Some languages have started out with the implicit declaration behavior, but as they matured they provided an option to disable it (e.g. Perl's "use strict" or Visual Basic's "Option Explicit").