Editing Programming language (section)

====Dynamic semantics====
{{Main|Semantics of programming languages}}
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Once data has been specified, the machine must be instructed to perform operations on the data. For example, the semantics may define the [[evaluation strategy|strategy]] by which expressions are evaluated to values, or the manner in which [[control flow|control structures]] conditionally execute [[Statement (computer science)|statements]]. The ''dynamic semantics'' (also known as ''execution semantics'') of a language defines how and when the various constructs of a language should produce a program behavior. There are many ways of defining execution semantics. Natural language is often used to specify the execution semantics of languages commonly used in practice. A significant amount of academic research goes into [[formal semantics of programming languages]], which allows execution semantics to be specified in a formal manner. Results from this field of research have seen limited application to programming language design and implementation outside academia.<ref name=":1" />