What Is Procedural Programming?
Procedural programming is usually the first paradigm that a developer learns.
Fundamentally, the procedural code tells a device to perform a task in logical phases.
Based on the notion of a procedure call, procedural programming separates the program into procedures, which are sometimes known as routines or functions, simply having a set of actions to be carried out.
This paradigm takes a linear top-down approach and sees data and methods as two independent entities.
Characteristics of Procedural Programming
- Parameter Passing: Parameter passing is a technique used to pass parameters to functions, subroutines, or procedures. Parameter passing may be done by “pass by value,” “pass by reference,” “pass by the result, “pass by value-result,” and “pass by the name.”
- Local Variable: A local variable is defined in the main structure of a method and is confined to the local scope it is given. It can only be used in the method it is defined, and if it were to be used outside the defined method, the code would cease to operate.
- Predefined Functions: A predefined function is often an instruction a name indicates. Usually, the predefined functions are built into higher-level programming languages, but they are drawn from the library or the registry rather than the program. One example of a predefined function is ‘charAt(),’ which looks for a character position in a string.
- Modularity: Modularity is when two distinct systems have two different goals at hand but are brought together to finish a bigger job first. Every set of systems then would have its own tasks done one after the other until all tasks are accomplished.
- Global Variable: A global variable is a variable that is declared outside every other function specified in the code. Due to this, global variables may be utilized in all functions, unlike a local variable.
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) vs. Procedural Programming
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that stores data (in the form of fields or attributes) and code in “objects” (in the form of procedures or methods).
Object-oriented programming is a top-down method of programming that uses the notion of objects to interact with the actual world.
The majority of widely used programming languages, such as C++, Python, and Java, employ a variety of paradigms, including the object-oriented programming paradigm.
Contrasting Procedural
Procedural programming differs from object-oriented programming in that procedural programming is mostly focused on functions, whereas OOP is primarily based on objects.
The following are some key distinctions between these two programming paradigms:
- The Focus: Algorithms are the foundation of the procedural-oriented programming paradigm, primarily concerned with the storage, manipulation, and administration of data.
- Working Mechanism: Procedural programming breaks down a difficult problem into smaller parts that are easier to comprehend, handle, and manage. OOP focuses on the objects to be processed rather than the technique or logic by which they will be handled.
- The Origin: The procedural-oriented programming paradigm is developed from the imperative programming model, whereas the declarative programming paradigm is related to the OOP paradigm.
- Division of Programs: Procedural programming organizes a program into functions or code blocks, while object-oriented programming organizes a program into multiple objects of classes.
- Memory Requirement: OOP’s data-oriented approach requires a more significant memory than the small memory used in procedural programming.
- Approach: Procedural-oriented languages use a top-down approach, while object-oriented programming employs a bottom-up strategy.
- Debugging and Repurposing Code: Debugging procedural languages is complex, while debugging object-oriented languages is simpler. OOP allows for easier reuse of code compared to procedural-oriented programming.
- Storage of Data: In OOP, data and related behavior are stored at a single location, whereas in procedural programming, they are separated and stored in various areas.
- Communication: Procedural-oriented programming communicates code by invoking the program’s function, while objects in OOP communicate with each other by passing messages.