Stropping (syntax)

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In <a href="/facts/Computer_language/n3L56qdP">computer language</a> design, stropping is a method of explicitly marking letter sequences as having a special property, such as being a <a href="/facts/Keyword_(computing)/pHDlUUgY">keyword</a>, or a certain type of variable or storage location, and thus inhabiting a different namespace from ordinary names ("identifiers"), in order to avoid clashes. Stropping is not used in most modern languages – instead, keywords are <a href="/facts/Reserved_word/pHDlUUgY">reserved words</a> and cannot be used as identifiers. Stropping allows the same letter sequence to be used both as a keyword and as an <a href="/facts/Identifier/pPaQPLhj">identifier</a>, and simplifies <a href="/facts/Parsing/nRKB01S3">parsing</a> in that case – for example allowing a variable named if without clashing with the keyword if.
</p><p>Stropping is primarily associated with <a href="/facts/ALGOL/wlFJGNEx">ALGOL</a> and related languages in the 1960s. Though it finds some modern use, it is easily confused with other similar techniques that are superficially similar.
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Stropping (syntax) open-in-new

Stropping (syntax)