Directive (programming): Difference between revisions

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In [[computer programming]], the term '''directive''' is applied in a variety of ways that are similar to the term ''command''. It is also used to describe some [[programming language]] constructs (e.g. those specifying how a [[compiler]] or [[assembly language|assembler]] should process its input).

To distinguish a directive from a command or statement, a directive may involve a pre or post processing command or macro. Its second use involves a statement that effectsaffects local or more global options or that applies to a block of programming code but by itself does not perform any action.

This term could be used to refer to proprietary third party tags and commands (or markup) embedded in code or comments that result in additional executable processing that extend the existent compiler, assembler and language constructs present in the development environment.