'''Computer code''' or '''program code''' is the set of instructions forming a [[computer program]] which is [[Execution (computing)|executed]] by a [[computer]]. It is one of two components of the [[software]] which runs on [[computer hardware]], the other being the [[data (computing)|data]].
* [[Bytecode]], a byte-based, cross-platform, intermediate executable format
Computers can only execute the [[machine code]] instructions which are part of their [[instruction set]]. Because these instructions are difficult for humans to read, and writing good programs in machine code or other [[low-level programming language]]s is a time-consuming task, most [[programmer]]s write in the [[source code]] of a [[high-level programming language]]. This source code is [[Translator (computing)|translated]] into machine code by a [[compiler]] or [[interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] so that the computer can execute it to perform its [[task (computing)|task]]s. A compiler produces [[object code]] which is usually in machine language but may also be in an intermediate language which is at a lower level than the source. A [[runtime system]] is often used to execute object code by [[Linker (computing)|linking]] it with commonly used libraries. [[Bytecode]] is a lower level of source which is designed for more efficient interpretation by interpreters.
* [[Machine code]], processor-native executable format
* [[Source code]], represents software in a human-readable format
