This article compares the syntax of many notable programming languages.

Programming language expressions can be broadly classified into four syntax structures:

A language that supports the statement construct typically has rules for one or more of the following aspects:

Some languages define a special character as a terminator while some, called line-oriented, rely on the newline. Typically, a line-oriented language includes a line continuation feature whereas other languages have no need for line continuation since newline is treated like other whitespace. Some line-oriented languages provide a separator for use between statements on one line.

Listed below are notable line-oriented languages that provide for line continuation. Unless otherwise noted the continuation marker must be the last text of the line.

The C compiler concatenates adjacent string literals even if on separate lines, but this is not line continuation syntax as it works the same regardless of the kind of whitespace between the literals.

Languages support a variety of ways to reference and consume other software in the syntax of the language. In some cases this is importing the exported functionality of a library, package or module but some mechanisms are simpler text file include operations.

Import can be classified by level (module, package, class, procedure,...) and by syntax (directive name, attributes,...).