List of programming languages by type

This is a list of notable programming languages, grouped by notable language attribute. As a language can have multiple attributes, the same language can be in multiple groupings.

Agent-oriented programming languages

Agent-oriented programming allows the developer to build, extend and use software agents, which are abstractions of objects that can message other agents.

Clojure
F#
GOAL
SARL

Array languages

Array programming (also termed vector or multidimensional) languages generalize operations on scalars to apply transparently to vectors, matrices, and higher-dimensional arrays.

A+
Ada
Analytica
APL
Chapel
Dartmouth BASIC
Fortran (As of Fortran 90)
FreeMat
GAUSS
Interactive Data Language (IDL)
J
Julia
K
MATLAB
Octave
PL/I
Q
R
Raku
S
Scilab
S-Lang
SequenceL
Speakeasy
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
X10
ZPL

Aspect-oriented programming languages

Aspect-oriented programming enables developers to add new functionality to code, known as "advice", without modifying that code itself; rather, it uses a pointcut to implement the advice into code blocks.

Ada
AspectJ
Groovy
Nemerle
Raku

Assembly languages

Assembly languages directly correspond to a machine language (see below), so machine code instructions appear in a form understandable by humans, although there may not be a one-to-one mapping between an individual statement and an individual instruction. Assembly languages let programmers use symbolic addresses, which the assembler converts to absolute or relocatable addresses. Most assemblers also support macros and symbolic constants.

Authoring languages

An authoring language is a programming language designed for use by a non-computer expert to easily create tutorials, websites, and other interactive computer programs.

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)
Lasso
PILOT
TUTOR
Authorware

Command-line interface languages

Command-line interface (CLI) languages are also called batch languages or job control languages. Examples:

4DOS (shell for IBM PCs)
4OS2 (shell for IBM PCs)
Batch files for DOS and Windows
- COMMAND.COM command language for DOS and pre-Windows NT Windows
- cmd.exe command language for Windows NT
sh (standard Unix shell, by Stephen R. Bourne) and compatibles
- bash (the Bourne-Again shell from GNU)
- ksh (a standard Unix shell, written by David Korn)
CLIST (MVS Command List)
CMS EXEC
csh (C shell, by Bill Joy) and compatibles
- tcsh
- Hamilton C shell (a C shell for Windows)
DIGITAL Command Language CLI for OpenVMS
EXEC 2
Expect (a Unix automation and test tool)
fish (a Unix shell)
Nushell (a cross-platform shell)
PowerShell (.NET-based CLI)
rc (shell for Plan 9)
Rexx
TACL (programming language)
zsh (a Unix shell)

Compiled languages

These are languages typically processed by compilers, though theoretically any language can be compiled or interpreted.

ArkTS
ActionScript
Ada (multi-purpose language)
ALGOL 58
- JOVIAL
- NELIAC
ALGOL 60 (influential design)
- SMALL a Machine ALGOL
ALGOL 68
Ballerina→ bytecode runtime
BASIC (including the first version of Dartmouth BASIC)
BCPL
C (widely used procedural language)
C++ (multiparadigm language derived from C)
C# (into CIL runtime)
Ceylon (into JVM bytecode)
CHILL
CLIPPER 5.3 (DOS-based)
CLEO for Leo computers
Clojure (into JVM bytecode)
COBOL
Cobra
Common Lisp
Crystal
Curl
D (from a reengineering of C++)
DASL→Java, JS, JSP, Flex.war
Delphi (Borland's Object Pascal development system)
DIBOL (a Digital COBOL)
Dylan
Eiffel (developed by Bertrand Meyer)
- Sather
- Ubercode
Elm
Emacs Lisp
Emerald
Erlang
Factor
Fortran (first compiled by IBM's John Backus)
GAUSS
Go
Gosu (into JVM bytecode)
Groovy (into JVM bytecode)
Haskell
Harbour
HolyC
Inform (usually story files for Glulx or Z-code)
Java (usually JVM bytecode; to machine code)
JOVIAL
Julia (on the fly to machine code)
Kotlin (Kotlin/Native uses LLVM to produce binaries)
LabVIEW
Mercury
Mesa
Nemerle (into intermediate language bytecode)
Nim
Objective-C
P
Pascal (most implementations)
PL/I
Plus
Pony
Python (to intermediate VM bytecode)
RPG (Report Program Generator)
Red
Rust
Scala (into JVM bytecode)
Scheme (e.g. Gambit)
SequenceL – purely functional, parallelizing and race-free
Simula (object-oriented superset of ALGOL 60)
Smalltalk platform independent VM bytecode
Swift
ML
- Standard ML (SML)
  - Alice
- OCaml
- F# (into CIL, generates runtime)
Turing
V (Vlang)
Vala (GObject type system)
Visual Basic (CIL JIT runtime)
Visual FoxPro
Visual Prolog
Xojo
Zig

Concatenative programming languages

A concatenative programming language is a point-free computer programming language in which all expressions denote functions, and the juxtaposition of expressions denotes function composition.

Factor
Forth
jq (function application is also supported)
Joy
PostScript
Raku

Concurrent languages

Message passing languages provide language constructs for concurrency. The predominant paradigm for concurrency in mainstream languages such as Java is shared memory concurrency. Concurrent languages that make use of message passing have generally been inspired by process calculi such as communicating sequential processes (CSP) or the π-calculus.

Ada – multi-purpose language
Alef – concurrent language with threads and message passing, used for systems programming in early versions of Plan 9 from Bell Labs
Ateji PX – an extension of the Java language for parallelism
Ballerina – a language designed for implementing and orchestrating micro-services. Provides a message based parallel-first concurrency model.
C++ (since C++11)
ChucK – domain specific programming language for audio, precise control over concurrency and timing
Cilk – a concurrent C
Cω – C Omega, a research language extending C#, uses asynchronous communication
Clojure – a dialect of Lisp for the Java virtual machine
Chapel
Co-array Fortran
Concurrent Pascal (by Brinch-Hansen)
Curry
E – uses promises, ensures deadlocks cannot occur
Eiffel (through the SCOOP mechanism, Simple Concurrent Object-Oriented Computation)
Elixir (runs on the Erlang VM)
Emerald – uses threads and monitors
Erlang – uses asynchronous message passing with nothing shared
Gambit Scheme – using the Termite library
Gleam (runs on the Erlang VM)
Go
Haskell – supports concurrent, distributed, and parallel programming across multiple machines
Java
- Join Java – concurrent language based on Java
- X10
Julia
Joule – dataflow language, communicates by message passing
LabVIEW
Limbo – relative of Alef, used for systems programming in Inferno (operating system)
MultiLisp – Scheme variant extended to support parallelism
OCaml
occam – influenced heavily by Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP)
- occam-π – a modern variant of occam, which incorporates ideas from Milner's π-calculus
Orc
Oz – multiparadigm language, supports shared-state and message-passing concurrency, and futures, and Mozart Programming System cross-platform Oz
P
Pony
Pict – essentially an executable implementation of Milner's π-calculus
Python – uses thread-based parallelism and process-based parallelism
Raku
Rust
Scala – implements Erlang-style actors on the JVM
SequenceL – purely functional, automatically parallelizing and race-free
SR – research language
V (Vlang)
Unified Parallel C
XProc – XML processing language, enabling concurrency

Constraint programming languages

A constraint programming language is a declarative programming language where relationships between variables are expressed as constraints. Execution proceeds by attempting to find values for the variables which satisfy all declared constraints.

Claire
Constraint Handling Rules
CHIP
ECLiPSe
Kaleidoscope
Oz
Raku

Contract languages

Design by contract (or contract programming) is programming using defined preconditions, postconditions, and invariants.

Ada (since Ada 2012)
Ciao
Clojure
Cobra
C++ (since C++26)
D
Dafny
Eiffel
Fortress
Kotlin
Mercury
Oxygene (formerly Chrome and Delphi Prism)
Racket (including higher order contracts, and emphasizing that contract violations must blame the guilty party and must do so with an accurate explanation)
Sather
Scala
SPARK (via static analysis of Ada programs)
Vala
Vienna Development Method (VDM)

Curly bracket languages

A curly bracket or curly brace language has syntax that defines a block as the statements between curly brackets, a.k.a. braces, {}. This syntax originated with BCPL (1966), and was popularized by C. Many curly bracket languages descend from or are strongly influenced by C. Examples:

ABCL/c+
Alef
AWK
ArkTS
B
bc
BCPL
Ballerina
C – developed circa 1970 at Bell Labs
C++
C#
Ceylon
Chapel
ChucK – audio programming language
Cilk – concurrent C for multithreaded parallel programming
Cyclone – a safer C variant
D
Dart
DASL – based on Java
E
ECMAScript
- AssemblyScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript
- JScript
- TypeScript
GLSL
Go
HLSL
Java
- Processing
- Groovy
- Join Java
- Kotlin
- Tea
- X10
Limbo
LPC
MEL
Nemerle (curly braces optional)
Objective-C
PCASTL
Perl
PHP
Pico
Pike
PowerShell
R
Raku
Rust
S-Lang
Scala (curly-braces optional)
sed
Solidity
SuperCollider
Swift
UnrealScript
V (Vlang)
Yorick
YASS
Zig

Dataflow languages

Dataflow programming languages rely on a (usually visual) representation of the flow of data to specify the program. Frequently used for reacting to discrete events or for processing streams of data. Examples of dataflow languages include:

Analytica
Ballerina
BMDFM
Hartmann pipelines
G (used in LabVIEW)
Lucid
Max
Oz
Prograph
Pure Data
Reaktor
StreamBase StreamSQL EventFlow
Swift (parallel scripting language)
VEE
VHDL
VisSim
Vvvv
WebMethods Flow

Data-oriented languages

Data-oriented languages provide powerful ways of searching and manipulating the relations that have been described as entity relationship tables which map one set of things into other sets.^{[citation needed]} Examples of data-oriented languages include:

Associative Programming Language
Clarion
Clipper
dBase a relational database access language
Gremlin
MUMPS (an ANSI standard general-purpose language with specializations for database work)
Caché ObjectScript (a proprietary superset of MUMPS)
RETRIEVE
RDQL
SPARQL
SQL
Visual FoxPro – a native RDBMS engine, object-oriented, RAD
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)

Decision table languages

Decision tables can be used as an aid to clarifying the logic before writing a program in any language, but in the 1960s a number of languages were developed where the main logic is expressed directly in the form of a decision table, including:

Filetab

Declarative languages

Declarative languages express the logic of a computation without describing its control flow in detail. Declarative programming stands in contrast to imperative programming via imperative programming languages, where control flow is specified by serial orders (imperatives). (Pure) functional and logic-based programming languages are also declarative, and constitute the major subcategories of the declarative category. This section lists additional examples not in those subcategories.

Analytica
Ant (combine declarative programming and imperative programming)
Curry
Cypher
Datalog
Distributed Application Specification Language (DASL) (combine declarative programming and imperative programming)
ECL
Gremlin
Inform (combine declarative programming and imperative programming)
Lustre
Mercury
Metafont
MetaPost
Modelica
Nix
Prolog
QML
Oz
RDQL
SequenceL – purely functional, automatically parallelizing and race-free
SPARQL
SQL (Only DQL, not DDL, DCL, and DML)
Soufflé
VHDL (supports declarative programming, imperative programming, and functional programming)
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
WOQL (TerminusDB)
xBase
XSL Transformations

Embeddable languages

In source code

Source embeddable languages embed small pieces of executable code inside a piece of free-form text, often a web page.

Client-side embedded languages are limited by the abilities of the browser or intended client. They aim to provide dynamism to web pages without the need to recontact the server.

Server-side embedded languages are much more flexible, since almost any language can be built into a server. The aim of having fragments of server-side code embedded in a web page is to generate additional markup dynamically; the code itself disappears when the page is served, to be replaced by its output.

Server side

PHP
VBScript
Tcl – server-side in NaviServer and an essential component in electronics industry systems

The above examples are particularly dedicated to this purpose. A large number of other languages, such as Erlang, Scala, Perl, Ring and Ruby can be adapted (for instance, by being made into Apache modules).

Client side

ActionScript
JavaScript (aka ECMAScript or JScript)
VBScript (Windows only)

In object code

A wide variety of dynamic or scripting languages can be embedded in compiled executable code. Basically, object code for the language's interpreter needs to be linked into the executable. Source code fragments for the embedded language can then be passed to an evaluation function as strings. Application control languages can be implemented this way, if the source code is input by the user. Languages with small interpreters are preferred.

AngelScript
Ch
EEL
Io
jq (C and Go)
Julia
Lua
Luau
Python
Ring
Ruby (via mruby)
Squirrel
Tcl

Educational programming languages

Languages developed primarily for the purpose of teaching and learning of programming.

Alice
Blockly
Catrobat
COMAL
Elan
Emerald
Ezhil
Logo
Modula-2
Pascal
PL/C
Racket
Scheme
Scratch
Snap!
SP/k
Turing
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)

Esoteric languages

An esoteric programming language is a programming language designed as a test of the boundaries of computer programming language design, as a proof of concept, or as a joke.

Beatnik
Befunge
Brainfuck
Chef
INTERCAL
LOLCODE
Malbolge
Piet
Shakespeare
Whitespace

Extension languages

Extension programming languages are languages embedded into another program and used to harness its features in extension scripts.

AutoLISP (specific to AutoCAD)
BeanShell
CAL
C/AL (C/SIDE)
Guile
Emacs Lisp
JavaScript and some dialects, e.g., JScript
Lua (embedded in many games)
OpenCL (extension of C and C++ to use the GPU and parallel extensions of the CPU)
OptimJ (extension of Java with language support for writing optimization models and powerful abstractions for bulk data processing)
Perl
Pike
PowerShell
Python (embedded in Maya, Blender, and other 3-D animation packages)
Rexx
Ring
Ruby (Google SketchUp)
S-Lang
SQL
Squirrel
Tcl
Vim script (vim)
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

Fourth-generation languages

Fourth-generation programming languages are high-level programming languages built around database systems. They are generally used in commercial environments.

1C:Enterprise programming language
ABAP
CorVision
CSC's GraphTalk
CA-IDEAL (Interactive Development Environment for an Application Life) for use with CA-DATACOM/DB
Easytrieve report generator (now CA-Easytrieve Plus)
FOCUS
IBM Informix-4GL
LINC 4GL
LiveCode (Not based on a database; still, the goal is to work at a higher level of abstraction than 3GLs.)
MAPPER (Unisys/Sperry) – now part of BIS
MARK-IV (Sterling/Informatics) now VISION:BUILDER of CA
NATURAL
Progress 4GL
PV-Wave
RETRIEVE
SAS
SQL
Ubercode (VHLL, or Very-High-Level Language)
Uniface
Visual DataFlex
Visual FoxPro
xBase

Functional languages

Functional programming languages define programs and subroutines as mathematical functions and treat them as first-class. Many so-called functional languages are "impure", containing imperative features. Many functional languages are tied to mathematical calculation tools. Functional languages include:

Pure

Agda
Clean
Cuneiform
Curry
Elm
Futhark
Haskell
Hope
Idris
Joy
jq (but functions are 2nd class)
KRC
Lean
Mercury
Miranda
Pure
PureScript
Rocq (former name: Coq)
SAC
SASL
SequenceL
Ur

Impure

APL
- J
- Q (programming language from Kx Systems)
ATS
CAL
C++ (since C++11)
C#
VB.NET
Ceylon
Curl
D
Dart
ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript
- JScript
- Source
- ArkTS
- TypeScript
Erlang
- Elixir
- Gleam
- LFE
Fexl
Flix
G (used in LabVIEW)
Groovy
Hop
Java (since version 8)
Julia
Kotlin
Lisp
- Clojure
- Common Lisp
- Dylan
- Emacs Lisp
- LFE
- Little b
- Logo
- Racket
- Scheme
  - Guile
- Tea
ML
- Standard ML (SML)
  - Alice
- OCaml
- F#
Nemerle
Nim
Opal
OPS5
Perl
- Raku
PHP
PL/pgSQL
Python
Q (equational programming language)
R
Rebol
Red
Ring
Ruby
REFAL
Rust
Scala
Swift
Spreadsheets
V (Vlang)
Tcl
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)

Hardware description languages

In electronics, a hardware description language (HDL) is a specialized computer language used to describe the structure, design, and operation of electronic circuits, and most commonly, digital logic circuits. The two most widely used and well-supported HDL varieties used in industry are Verilog and VHDL. Hardware description languages include:

HDLs for analog circuit design

Verilog-AMS (Verilog for Analog and Mixed-Signal)
VHDL-AMS (VHDL with Analog/Mixed-Signal extension)

HDLs for digital circuit design

Advanced Boolean Expression Language
Altera Hardware Description Language
Bluespec
Confluence
ELLA
Handel-C
Impulse C
Lola
MyHDL
PALASM
Ruby (hardware description language)
SystemC
SystemVerilog
Verilog
VHDL (VHSIC HDL)

Imperative languages

Imperative programming languages may be multi-paradigm and appear in other classifications. Here is a list of programming languages that follow the imperative paradigm:

Ada
ALGOL 58
- JOVIAL
- NELIAC
ALGOL 60 (very influential language design)
ALGOL 68
BASIC
C
C++
C#
Ceylon
CHILL
COBOL
D
Dart
ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript
- JScript
- Source
FORTRAN
GAUSS
Go
Groovy
Icon
Java
Julia
Lua
MATLAB
Machine languages
Modula-2, Modula-3
MUMPS
Nim
OCaml
Oberon
Object Pascal
Open Object Rexx (ooRexx)
Open Programming Language (OPL)
OpenEdge Advanced Business Language (ABL)
Pascal
Perl
PHP
PL/I
PL/S
PowerShell
PROSE
Python
Raku
Rexx
Ring
Ruby
Rust
SETL
Speakeasy
Swift
Tcl
V (Vlang)
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)

Interactive mode languages

Known as REPL - Interactive mode languages act as a kind of shell: expressions or statements can be entered one at a time, and the result of their evaluation seen immediately.

APL
BASIC (some dialects)
Clojure
Common Lisp
Dart (with Observatory or Dartium's developer tools)
ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript
- JScript
- Source
- ArkTS
Erlang
Elixir (with iex)
F#
Fril
GAUSS
Groovy
Guile
Haskell (with the GHCi or Hugs interpreter)
IDL
J
Java (since version 9)
Julia
Lua
MUMPS (an ANSI standard general-purpose language)
Maple
MATLAB
ML
Nim (with INim)
OCaml
Perl
PHP
Pike
PostScript
PowerShell (.NET-based CLI)
Prolog
Python
PROSE
R
Raku
Rebol
Red
Rexx
Ring
Ruby (with IRB)
Scala
Scheme
Smalltalk (anywhere in a Smalltalk environment)
S-Lang (with the S-Lang shell, slsh)
Speakeasy
Swift
Tcl (with the Tcl shell, tclsh)
Unix shell
Visual FoxPro
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)

Interpreted languages

Interpreted languages are programming languages in which programs may be executed from source code form, by an interpreter. Theoretically, any language can be compiled or interpreted, so the term interpreted language generally refers to languages that are usually interpreted rather than compiled.

Ant
APL
AutoHotkey scripting language
AutoIt scripting language
BASIC (some dialects)
Programming Language for Business (PL/B, formerly DATABUS, later versions added optional compiling)
Eiffel (via Melting Ice Technology in EiffelStudio)
Emacs Lisp
FOCAL
GameMaker Language
Groovy
J
jq
Java bytecode
Julia (compiled on the fly to machine code, by default, interpreting also available)
JavaScript
Lisp (early versions, pre-1962, and some experimental ones; production Lisp systems are compilers, but many of them still provide an interpreter if needed)
LPC
Lua
MUMPS (an ANSI standard general-purpose language)
Maple
MATLAB
OCaml
Pascal (early implementations)
PCASTL
Perl
PHP
PostScript
PowerShell
PROSE
Python
Rexx
R
Raku
Rebol
Red
Ring
Ruby
S-Lang
Seed7
Speakeasy
Standard ML (SML)
Spin
Tcl
Tea
TorqueScript
VBScript
Windows PowerShell – .NET-based CLI
Some scripting languages – below
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)

Iterative languages

Iterative languages are built around or offering generators.

Aldor
Alphard
C++
C#
CLU
Cobra
ECMAScript (ES6+)
Eiffel, through "agents"
Icon
IPL-v
jq
Julia
Lua
Nim
PHP
Python
Raku
Sather

Languages by memory management type

Garbage collected languages

Garbage Collection (GC) is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector attempts to reclaim memory that was allocated by the program but is no longer used.

APL
C++ (from C++11 until C++23 for official standard library support)
C#
Clean
Crystal
Dart
ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript
- JScript
- Source
Emerald
Erlang
Go
Groovy
Haskell
Java
Julia
Kotlin
LabVIEW
Lisp (originator)
- Arc
- Clojure
- Common Lisp
- Dylan
- Emacs Lisp
- Guile
- Racket
- Scheme
- Logo
Lua
ML
- Standard ML (SML)
  - Alice
- OCaml
Modula-3
Perl
PHP
PowerShell
Python
Ring
Ruby
Smalltalk
Speakeasy

Languages with manual memory management

ALGOL 68
Assembly (various)
BLISS
C
C++
Component Pascal
Forth
Fortran
FreeBASIC
Modula-2
Oberon
Pascal
PL/I
Zig

Languages with optional manual memory management

Ada
Blitz BASIC
COBOL
D
Nim
Objective-C
Objective-C++
PostScript
Rust
V
Vala

Some programming languages without the inherent ability to manually manage memory, like Cython, Swift, and Scala (Scala Native only), are able to import or call functions like malloc and free from C through a foreign function interface.

Languages with deterministic memory management

Ada
C
C++
Fortran
Nim
Pascal
Rust
Objective-C
Zig
Modula-3

Languages with automatic reference counting (ARC)

Nim
Objective-C
Perl
Swift
Visual Basic
Xojo

List-based languages – LISPs

List-based languages are a type of data-structured language that are based on the list data structure.

Lisp
- Arc
- Clojure
- Common Lisp
- Dylan
- Emacs Lisp
- Guile
- Racket
- Scheme
- Logo

Joy
R
Source
Tcl
- Tea
TRAC

Little languages

Little languages serve a specialized problem domain.

awk – used for text file manipulation.
sed – parses and transforms text
SQL – has only a few keywords and not all the constructs needed for a full programming language – many database management systems extend SQL with additional constructs as a stored procedure language
XPL - a language designed for, although not limited to, compiler writing

Logic-based languages

Logic-based languages specify a set of attributes that a solution must-have, rather than a set of steps to obtain a solution.

Notable languages following this programming paradigm include:

ALF
Alma-0
Curry
Datalog
Fril
Flix (a functional programming language with first-class Datalog constraints)
Janus
λProlog (a logic programming language featuring polymorphic typing, modular programming, and higher-order programming)
Oz, and Mozart Programming System cross-platform Oz
Prolog (formulates data and the program evaluation mechanism as a special form of mathematical logic called Horn logic and a general proving mechanism called logical resolution)
- Mercury (based on Prolog)
- Visual Prolog (object-oriented Prolog extension)
ROOP
Soufflé

Machine languages

Machine languages are directly executable by a computer's CPU. They are typically formulated as bit patterns, usually represented in octal or hexadecimal. Each bit pattern causes the circuits in the CPU to execute one of the fundamental operations of the hardware. The activation of specific electrical inputs (e.g., CPU package pins for microprocessors), and logical settings for CPU state values, control the processor's computation. Individual machine languages are specific to a family of processors; machine-language code for one family of processors cannot run directly on processors in another family unless the processors in question have additional hardware to support it (for example, DEC VAX processors included a PDP-11 compatibility mode). They are (essentially) always defined by the CPU developer, not by 3rd parties. The symbolic version, the processor's assembly language, is also defined by the developer, in most cases. Some commonly used machine code instruction sets are:

RISC-V
ARM
- Original 32-bit
- 16-bit Thumb instructions (subset of registers used)
- 64-bit (major architecture change)
DEC:
- 18-bit: PDP-1, PDP-4, PDP-7, PDP-9, PDP-15
- 12-bit: PDP-5, PDP-8, LINC-8, PDP-12
- 36-bit: PDP-6, PDP-10, DECSYSTEM-20
- 16-bit: PDP-11 (influenced VAX and M68000)
- 32-bit: VAX
- 64-bit: Alpha
Intel 8008, 8080 and 8085
- Zilog Z80
x86:
- 16-bit x86, first used in the Intel 8086
  - Intel 8086 and 8088 (the latter was used in the first and early IBM PC)
  - Intel 80186
  - Intel 80286 (the first x86 processor with protected mode, used in the IBM PC AT)
- IA-32, introduced in the 80386
- x86-64 – The original specification was created by AMD. There are vendor variants, but they're essentially the same:
  - AMD's AMD64
  - Intel's Intel 64
Burroughs Corporation
- Burroughs B5000 instruction set
- Burroughs B6x00-7x00 instruction set
IBM
- 305
- 650
- 701
- 702, 705 and 7080
- 704, 709, 7040, 7044, 7090, 7094
- 1400 series, 7010
- 7030
- 7070, 7072, 7074
- System/360 and successors, including z/Architecture
MIPS
Motorola 6800 (8-bit)
Motorola 68000 series (CPUs used in early Macintosh and early Sun computers)
MOS Technology 65xx (8-bit)
- 6502 (CPU for NES, VIC-20, BBC Micro, Apple II, and Atari 8-bit computers)
- 6510 (CPU for Commodore 64)
- Western Design Center 65816/65802 (CPU for Apple IIGS and (variant) Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
National Semiconductor NS320xx
POWER, first used in the IBM RS/6000
- PowerPC – used in Power Macintosh and in many game consoles, particularly of the seventh generation.
- Power ISA – an evolution of PowerPC.
Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) SPARC
UNIVAC
- 30-bit computers: 490, 492, 494, 1230
- 36-bit computers
  - 1101, 1103, 1105
  - 1100/2200 series
MCST Elbrus 2000

Macro languages

Textual substitution macro languages

Macro languages transform one source code file into another. A "macro" is essentially a short piece of text that expands into a longer one (not to be confused with hygienic macros), possibly with parameter substitution. They are often used to preprocess source code. Preprocessors can also supply facilities like file inclusion.

Macro languages may be restricted to acting on specially labeled code regions (pre-fixed with a # in the case of the C preprocessor). Alternatively, they may not, but in this case it is still often undesirable to (for instance) expand a macro embedded in a string literal, so they still need a rudimentary awareness of syntax. That being the case, they are often still applicable to more than one language. Contrast with source-embeddable languages like PHP, which are fully featured.

C preprocessor
m4 (originally from AT&T, bundled with Unix)
ML/I (general-purpose macro processor)
TTM (developed at the California Institute of Technology)

Application macro languages

Scripting languages such as Tcl and ECMAScript (ActionScript, ECMAScript for XML, JavaScript, JScript) have been embedded into applications. These are sometimes called "macro languages", although in a somewhat different sense to textual-substitution macros like m4.

Metaprogramming languages

Metaprogramming is the writing of programs that write or manipulate other programs, including themselves, as their data or that do part of the work that is otherwise done at run time during compile time. In many cases, this allows programmers to get more done in the same amount of time as they would take to write all the code manually.

C++
CWIC
Curl
D
Emacs Lisp
Elixir
F#
Groovy
Haskell
Julia
Lisp
Lua
Maude system
META II (and META I, a subset)
OCaml (MetaOCaml)
Nemerle
Nim
Perl
Python
Raku
Red
Ring
Ruby
Rust
Scheme
SequenceL
Smalltalk
Source
TREE-META
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)

Modular languages

Modular programming is a programming paradigm of organising functions and symbols into independent modules.

Ada
ALGOL
BlitzMax
C (via Clang extensions)
C++ (via C++ modules)
C#
Clojure
COBOL
Common Lisp
D
Dart
eC
Erlang
Elixir
Elm
F
F#
Fortran
Go
Haskell
IBM/360 Assembler
IBM System/38 and AS/400 Control Language (CL)
IBM RPG
Java (via Java packages and Java modules)
JavaScript
Julia
MATLAB
ML
Modula, Modula-2, Modula-3
Morpho
NEWP
Oberon, Oberon-2
Objective-C
OCaml
Pascal derivatives
- Component Pascal
- Object Pascal
- Turbo Pascal
- UCSD Pascal
Perl
PHP
PL/I
PureBasic
Python
R
Ruby
Rust
Visual Basic (.NET)
WebDNA.

Multiparadigm languages

Multiparadigm languages support more than one programming paradigm. They allow a program to use more than one programming style. The goal is to allow programmers to use the best tool for a job, admitting that no one paradigm solves all problems in the easiest or most efficient way.

1C:Enterprise programming language (generic, imperative, object-oriented, prototype-based, functional)
Ada (concurrent, distributed, generic (template metaprogramming), imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
ALF (functional, logic)
Alma-0 (constraint, imperative, logic)
APL (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
BETA (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
C++ (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), functional, metaprogramming)
C# (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), functional, declarative)
Ceylon (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), functional, declarative)
ChucK (imperative, object-oriented, time-based, concurrent, on-the-fly)
Cobra (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), functional, contractual)
Common Lisp (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), aspect-oriented (user may add further paradigms, e.g., logic))
Curl (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming)
Curry (concurrent, functional, logic)
D (generic, imperative, functional, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming)
Dart (generic, imperative, functional, object-oriented (class-based))
Delphi Object Pascal (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming)
Dylan (functional, object-oriented (class-based))
ECMAScript (functional, imperative, object-oriented (prototype-based))
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript
- JScript
Eiffel (imperative, object-oriented (class-based), generic, functional (agents), concurrent (SCOOP))
F# (functional, generic, object-oriented (class-based), language-oriented)
Fantom (functional, object-oriented (class-based))
Go (imperative, procedural),
Groovy (functional, object-oriented (class-based), imperative, procedural)
Harbour
Hop
J (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
Java (generic, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), functional)
Julia (imperative, multiple dispatch ("object-oriented"), functional, metaprogramming)
LabVIEW (visual, dataflow, concurrent, modular, functional, object-oriented, scripting)
Lua (functional, imperative, object-oriented (prototype-based))
Mercury (functional, logical, object-oriented)
Metaobject protocols (object-oriented (class-based, prototype-based))
Nemerle (functional, object-oriented (class-based), imperative, metaprogramming)
Objective-C (imperative, object-oriented (class-based), reflective)
OCaml (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), modular)
Oz (functional (evaluation: eager, lazy), logic, constraint, imperative, object-oriented (class-based), concurrent, distributed), and Mozart Programming System cross-platform Oz
Object Pascal (imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
Perl (imperative, functional (can't be purely functional), object-oriented, class-oriented, aspect-oriented (through modules))
PHP (imperative, object-oriented, functional (can't be purely functional))
Pike (interpreted, general-purpose, high-level, cross-platform, dynamic programming language )
Prograph (dataflow, object-oriented (class-based), visual)
Python (functional, compiled, interpreted, object-oriented (class-based), imperative, metaprogramming, extension, impure, interactive mode, iterative, reflective, scripting)
R (array, interpreted, impure, interactive mode, list-based, object-oriented prototype-based, scripting)
Racket (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based) and can be extended by the user)
Raku (concurrent, concatenative, functional, metaprogramming generic, imperative, reflection object-oriented, pipelines, reactive, and via libraries constraints, distributed)
Rebol (functional, imperative, object-oriented (prototype-based), metaprogramming (dialected))
Red (functional, imperative, object-oriented (prototype-based), metaprogramming (dialected))
ROOP (imperative, logic, object-oriented (class-based), rule-based)
Ring (imperative, functional, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming, declarative, natural)
Ruby (imperative, functional, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming)
Rust (concurrent, functional, imperative, object-oriented, generic, metaprogramming, compiled)
Scala (functional, object-oriented)
Seed7 (imperative, object-oriented, generic)
SISAL (concurrent, dataflow, functional)
Spreadsheets (functional, visual)
Swift (protocol-oriented, object-oriented, functional, imperative, block-structured)
Tcl (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
- Tea (functional, imperative, object-oriented (class-based))
V (Vlang) (functional, imperative, procedural, structured, concurrent)
Windows PowerShell (functional, imperative, pipeline, object-oriented (class-based))
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)

Numerical analysis

Several general-purpose programming languages, such as C and Python, are also used for technical computing, this list focuses on languages almost exclusively used for technical computing.

AIMMS
AMPL
Analytica
Fortran
FreeMat
Frink
GAUSS
GAMS
GNU Data Language (GDL)
GNU Octave
Interactive Data Language (IDL)
J
Julia
Klerer-May System

Mathcad
MATLAB
MiniZinc
O-Matrix
OptimJ
Ox
PROSE
R
Seneca – an Oberon variant
Scilab
SequenceL
Speakeasy
Sysquake
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)

Non-English-based languages

Chinese BASIC (Chinese)
Fjölnir (Icelandic)
Language Symbolique d'Enseignement (French)
Rapira (Russian)
ezhil (Tamil)

Object-oriented class-based languages

Class-based object-oriented programming languages support objects defined by their class. Class definitions include member data. Message passing is a key concept, if not the main concept, in object-oriented languages.

Polymorphic functions parameterized by the class of some of their arguments are typically called methods. In languages with single dispatch, classes typically also include method definitions. In languages with multiple dispatch, methods are defined by generic functions. There are exceptions where single dispatch methods are generic functions (e.g. Bigloo's object system).

Multiple dispatch

Common Lisp
Cecil
Dylan
Julia
Raku

Single dispatch

ActionScript 3.0
Actor
Ada 95 and Ada 2005 (multi-purpose language)
APL
BETA
C++
C#
Ceylon
Dart
Oxygene (formerly named Chrome)
ChucK
Cobra
ColdFusion
Curl
D
Distributed Application Specification Language (DASL)
Delphi Object Pascal
E
GNU E
Eiffel
- Sather
- Ubercode
Fortran 2003
Fortress
Gambas
Game Maker Language
Harbour
J
Java
- Processing
- Groovy
- Join Java
- Tea
- X10
LabVIEW
Lua
Modula-2 (data abstraction, information hiding, strong typing, full modularity)
- Modula-3 (added more object-oriented features to Modula-2)
Nemerle
NetRexx
Oberon-2 (full object-orientation equivalence in an original, strongly typed, Wirthian manner)
Object Pascal
Object REXX
Objective-C (a superset of C adding a Smalltalk derived object model and message passing syntax)
OCaml
OpenEdge Advanced Business Language (ABL)
Oz, Mozart Programming System
Perl 5
PHP
Pike
Prograph
Python (interpretive language, optionally object-oriented)
Revolution (programmer does not get to pick the objects)
Ring
Ruby
Scala
Speakeasy
Simula (first object-oriented language, developed by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard)
Smalltalk (pure object-orientation, developed at Xerox PARC)
- Little Smalltalk
- Pharo
- Squeak
  - Scratch
- IBM VisualAge
- VisualWorks
SPIN
SuperCollider
VBScript (Microsoft Office 'macro scripting' language)
Visual DataFlex
Visual FoxPro
Visual Prolog
X++
Xojo
XOTcl

Object-oriented prototype-based languages

Prototype-based languages are object-oriented languages where the distinction between classes and instances has been removed:

1C:Enterprise programming language
Actor-Based Concurrent Language (ABCL, ABCL/1, ABCL/R, ABCL/R2, ABCL/c+)
Agora
Cecil
ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript (first named Mocha, then LiveScript)
- JScript
Etoys in Squeak
Io
Lua
MOO
NewtonScript
Obliq
R
Rebol
Red
Self (first prototype-based language, derived from Smalltalk)
TADS

Off-side rule languages

Off-side rule languages denote blocks of code by their indentation.

ISWIM, the abstract language that introduced the rule
ABC, Python's parent
- Python
  - Cobra
  - Boo
Miranda, Haskell's parent
- Orwell
- Haskell
  - Curry
Elixir (, do: blocks)
F#
Nemerle (off-side optional)
Nim
Occam
SPIN
Scala (off-side optional)

Procedural languages

Procedural programming languages are based on the concept of the unit and scope (the data viewing range) of an executable code statement. A procedural program is composed of one or more units or modules, either user coded or provided in a code library; each module is composed of one or more procedures, also called a function, routine, subroutine, or method, depending on the language. Examples of procedural languages include:

Ada (multi-purpose language)
ALGOL 58
- JOVIAL
- NELIAC
ALGOL 60 (very influential language design)
- SMALL Machine ALGOL Like Language
ALGOL 68
Alma-0
BASIC (these lack most modularity in (especially) versions before about 1990)
BCPL
BLISS
C
C++
C# (similar to Java/C++)
Ceylon
CHILL
ChucK (C/Java-like syntax, with new syntax elements for time and parallelism)
COBOL
Cobra
ColdFusion
CPL (Combined Programming Language)
Curl
D
Distributed Application Specification Language (DASL) (combine declarative programming and imperative programming)
ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript (first named Mocha, then LiveScript)
- JScript
- Source
Eiffel
Forth
Fortran (better modularity in later Standards)
- F
GAUSS
Go
Harbour
HyperTalk
Java
- Groovy
- Join Java
- Tea
JOVIAL
Julia
Language H
Lasso
Modula-2 (fundamentally based on modules)
MATLAB
Mesa
MUMPS (first release was more modular than other languages of the time; the standard has become even more modular since then)
Nemerle
Nim
Oberon, Oberon-2 (improved, smaller, faster, safer follow-ons for Modula-2)
- Component Pascal
- Seneca
OCaml
Occam
Oriel
Pascal (successor to ALGOL 60, predecessor of Modula-2)
- Free Pascal (FPC)
- Object Pascal, Delphi
PCASTL
Perl
Pike
PL/C
PL/I (large general-purpose language, originally for IBM mainframes)
Plus
PowerShell
PROSE
Python
R
Raku
Rapira
RPG
Rust
S-Lang
VBScript
Visual Basic
Visual FoxPro
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
Microsoft Dynamics AX (X++)

Query languages

Reflective languages

Reflective programming languages let programs examine and possibly modify their high-level structure at runtime or compile-time. This is most common in high-level virtual machine programming languages like Smalltalk, and less common in lower-level programming languages like C. Languages and platforms supporting reflection:

Befunge
C++ (since C++26)
Ceylon
Charm
ChucK
CLI
- C#
Cobra
Component Pascal BlackBox Component Builder
Curl
Cypher
Delphi Object Pascal
ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript
- JScript
Emacs Lisp
Eiffel
Harbour
Julia
JVM
- Java
- Groovy
- Join Java
- X10
Lisp
- Clojure
- Common Lisp
- Dylan
- Logo
- Scheme
Lua
Maude system
Oberon-2 – ETH Oberon System
Objective-C
PCASTL
Perl
PHP
Pico
Poplog
- POP-11
PowerShell
Prolog
Python
Raku
Rebol
Red
Ring
Ruby
Rust (with third-party libraries)
Smalltalk (pure object-orientation, originally from Xerox PARC)
- Little Smalltalk
- Self
- Squeak
- IBM VisualAge
- VisualWorks
SNOBOL
Tcl
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
XOTcl
X++
Xojo

Rule-based languages

Rule-based languages instantiate rules when activated by conditions in a set of data. Of all possible activations, some set is selected and the statements belonging to those rules execute. Rule-based languages include:^{[citation needed]}

awk
CLIPS
Claire
Constraint Handling Rules
Drools
GOAL agent programming language
Jess
OPS5
Prolog
ToonTalk – robots are rules
Wolfram Mathematica (Wolfram language)
XSLT^{[citation needed]}

Scripting languages

AngelScript
AppleScript
AutoHotKey
AutoIt
AWK
bc
BeanShell
C (via Tiny C Compiler)
Ch (Embeddable C/C++ interpreter)
CLI
- C# (compiled to bytecode, and running JIT inside VM)
CLIST
ColdFusion
ECMAScript
- ActionScript
- ECMAScript for XML
- JavaScript (first named Mocha, then LiveScript)
- JScript
- Source
Emacs Lisp
CMS EXEC
EXEC 2
Game Maker Language (GML)
GDScript
Io
JASS
Julia (compiled on the fly to machine code, by default, interpreting also available)
JVM
- Groovy
- Java (via JBang)
- Join Java
Lasso
Lua
MAXScript
MEL
Oriel
Pascal Script
Perl
PHP (intended for Web servers)
Python
R
Raku
Rebol
Red
Rexx
- Object REXX (OREXX, OOREXX)
Revolution
Ring
Ruby
RUNCOM (scripting language for running CTSS) programs)
S-Lang
sed
Smalltalk
Squirrel
Tea
Tcl
TorqueScript
VBScript
Many shell command languages have powerful scripting abilities:
- sh and compatibles
  - Ksh
  - Bash
- DIGITAL Command Language (DCL) on VMS
- PowerShell (.NET-based CLI)

Stack-based languages

Stack-based languages are a type of data-structured language that are based on the stack data structure.

Beatnik
Befunge
Factor
Forth
Joy (all functions work on parameter stacks instead of named parameters)
Piet
Poplog via its implementation language POP-11
PostScript
RPL
S-Lang

Synchronous languages

Synchronous programming languages are optimized for programming reactive systems, systems that are often interrupted and must respond quickly. Many such systems are also called realtime systems, and are used often in embedded systems.

Examples:

Argus
Averest
Esterel
Lustre
Signal
Céu (programming language)

Shading languages

A shading language is a graphics programming language adapted to programming shader effects. Such language forms usually consist of special data types, like "color" and "normal". Due to the variety of target markets for 3D computer graphics.

Real-time rendering

They provide both higher hardware abstraction and a more flexible programming model than previous paradigms which hardcoded transformation and shading equations. This gives the programmer greater control over the rendering process and delivers richer content at lower overhead.

Adobe Graphics Assembly Language (AGAL)
ARB assembly language (ARB assembly)
OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL or glslang)
High-Level Shading Language (HLSL) or DirectX Shader Assembly Language
PlayStation Shader Language (PSSL)
Metal Shading Language (MSL)
Cg

Offline rendering

Shading languages used in offline rendering produce maximum image quality. Processing such shaders is time-consuming. The computational power required can be expensive because of their ability to produce photorealistic results.

RenderMan Shading Language (RSL)
Open Shading Language (OSL)

Syntax-handling languages

These languages assist with generating lexical analyzers and parsers for context-free grammars.

ANTLR
Coco/R (EBNF with semantics)
GNU bison (FSF's version of Yacc)
GNU Flex (FSF version of Lex)
JavaCC
lex (Lexical Analysis, from Bell Labs)
M4
Parsing expression grammar (PEG)
Prolog
Emacs Lisp
Lisp
Raku
SableCC
Scheme
yacc (yet another compiler-compiler, from Bell Labs)
XPL

System languages

A system programming language is for low-level tasks like memory management or task management; it usually refers to a language used for systems programming; such languages are designed for writing system software, which usually requires different development approaches relative to application software.

System software is computer software designed to operate and control computer hardware, and provide a platform to run application software. System software includes software categories such as operating systems, utility software, device drivers, compilers, and linkers. Examples of system languages include:

Language	Originator	First appeared	Influenced by	Used for
ESPOL	Burroughs Corporation	1961	ALGOL 60	MCP
PL/I	IBM, SHARE	1964	ALGOL 60, FORTRAN, some COBOL	Multics
PL360	Niklaus Wirth	1968	ALGOL 60	ALGOL W
C	Dennis Ritchie	1969	BCPL	Most operating system kernels, including Windows NT and most Unix-like systems
PL/S	IBM	196x	PL/I	OS/360
BLISS	Carnegie Mellon University	1970	ALGOL-PL/I	VMS (portions)
PL/8	IBM	197x	PL/I	AIX
PL/MP and PL/MI	IBM	197x	PL/I	CPF, OS/400
PL-6	Honeywell, Inc.	197x	PL/I	CP-6
SYMPL	CDC	197x	JOVIAL	NOS subsystems, most compilers, FSE editor
C++	Bjarne Stroustrup	1979	C, Simula	See C++ Applications
Ada	Jean Ichbiah, S. Tucker Taft	1983	ALGOL 68, Pascal, C++, Java, Eiffel	Embedded systems, OS kernels, compilers, games, simulations, CubeSat, air traffic control, and avionics
D	Digital Mars	2001	C++	Multiple domains
Nim	Andreas Rumpf	2008	Ada, Modula-3, Lisp, C++, Object Pascal, Python, Oberon	OS kernels, compilers, games
Rust	Mozilla Research	2010	C++, Haskell, Erlang, Ruby	Servo layout engine, RedoxOS
Swift	Apple Inc.	2014	C, Objective-C, Rust	macOS, iOS app development
Zig	Andrew Kelley	2016	C, C++, LLVM IR, Go, Rust, JavaScript	As a replacement for C
V (Vlang)	Alexander Medvednikov	2019	C, Go, Oberon-2, Rust, Swift, Kotlin	Vinix OS, OS kernels, compilers, games

Transformation languages

Transformation languages serve the purpose of transforming (translating) source code specified in a certain formal language into a defined destination format code. It is most commonly used in intermediate components of more complex super-systems in order to adopt internal results for input into a succeeding processing routine.

ATL
AWK
MOFM2T
QVT
Raku
XSLT is the best known XML transformation language

Visual languages

Visual programming languages let users specify programs in a two-(or more)-dimensional way, instead of as one-dimensional text strings, via graphic layouts of various types. Some dataflow programming languages are also visual languages.

Analytica
Blockly
Clickteam Fusion
DRAKON
Fabrik
Grasshopper
Max
NXT-G
Pict
Prograph
Pure Data
Quartz Composer
Scratch (written in and based on Squeak, a version of Smalltalk)
Snap!
Simulink
Spreadsheets
Stateflow
Subtext
ToonTalk
VEE
VisSim
Vvvv
XOD

Wirth languages

Computer scientist Niklaus Wirth designed and implemented several influential languages.

ALGOL W
Euler
Modula
- Modula-2, Modula-3, variants
  - Obliq Modula 3 variant
Oberon (Oberon, Oberon-07, Oberon-2)
- Component Pascal
- Oberon-2
Pascal
- Object Pascal (umbrella name for Delphi, Free Pascal, Oxygene, others)

PL360

XML-based languages

These are languages based on or that operate on XML.

Ant
Cω
ECMAScript for XML
Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML)
MXML
LZX
XPath
XQuery
XProc
eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT)