Editing Syntactic sugar (section)

== Notable examples ==
* In [[COBOL]], many of the intermediate keywords are syntactic sugar that may optionally be omitted. For example, the sentence <code>MOVE A B.</code> and the sentence <code>MOVE A TO B.</code> perform exactly the same function, but the second makes the action to be performed clearer.
* [[Augmented assignment]] or compound assignment operators: For example, <code>a&nbsp;+=&nbsp;b</code> is equivalent to <code>a = a + b</code> in C and similar languages, assuming <code>a</code> has no side effects such as if <code>a</code> is a regular variable.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e1wf2hxf.aspx |title=C Compound Assignment |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=msdn.microsoft.com |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=20 June 2016 |quote=However, the compound-assignment expression is not equivalent to the expanded version because the compound-assignment expression evaluates expression1 only once, while the expanded version evaluates expression1 twice: in the addition operation and in the assignment operation.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/134136 |title=Why are shortcuts like x += y considered good practice? |last1=Garavaglia |first1=Emilio |date=26 July 2015 |website=stackexchange.com |access-date=20 June 2016 |quote=optimization can [be done] if 'finding x' has no side effects}}</ref> Some languages, such as [[Python (programming language)|Python]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html#object.__iadd__ |title=Python Data model |date=21 December 2020 |website=docs.python.org}}</ref> may allow [[operator overloading|overloading]] augmented assignment operators, so they may behave differently than standard ones.
* In [[Perl]], <code>unless (condition) {...} </code> is syntactic sugar for <code>if (not condition) {...}</code>. Additionally, any statement can be followed by a condition, so <code>statement if condition</code> is equivalent to <code>if (condition) {statement}</code>, but the former is more naturally formatted on a single line.
* In the [[C (programming language)|C language]], the <code>a[i]</code> notation is syntactic sugar for <code>*(a + i)</code>.<ref name="Raymond1996">{{cite book|first=Eric S.|last=Raymond|title=The New Hacker's Dictionary – 3rd Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g80P_4v4QbIC&pg=PA432|access-date=5 August 2012|date=11 October 1996|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-68092-9|page=432}}</ref> Likewise, the <code>a->x</code> notation is syntactic sugar for [[C syntax#Accessing members|accessing members]] using the [[dereference operator]] <code>(*a).x</code>.
* The <code>using</code> statement in [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]] ensures that certain objects are disposed of correctly. The compiler expands the statement into a [[Exception handling|try-finally]] block.<ref>{{cite web|title=using Statement (C# Reference)|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/yh598w02.aspx|access-date=16 September 2014}}</ref>
* The C# language allows variables to be declared as <code>var x = expr</code>, which allows the compiler to [[Type inference|infer]] the type of <code>x</code> from the expression <code>expr</code>, instead of requiring an explicit type declaration. Similarly, C++ allows <code>auto x = expr</code> since C++11 and Java allows <code>var x = expr</code> since Java 11.
* Python [[Comparison_of_programming_languages_(list_comprehension)#Python|list comprehensions]] (such as <code>[x*x for x in range(10)]</code> for a list of squares) and [[Python syntax and semantics#Decorators|decorators]] (such as <code>@staticmethod</code>).
* In [[Haskell (programming language)|Haskell]], a string, denoted in quotation marks, is semantically equivalent to a list of characters. An optional language extension ''OverloadedStrings'' allows string literals to produce other types of values, such as Text, as well.
* In the [[tidyverse]] collection of [[R (programming language)|R]] packages, the ''pipe'', denoted by <code>%>%</code>, declares that the data (or output of the function) preceding the pipe will serve as the first argument for the function following the pipe.<ref>{{cite web |title=magrittr: Vignette |url=https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/magrittr/vignettes/magrittr.html |access-date=24 December 2018}}</ref> So, <code>x %>% f(y)</code> is equivalent to <code>f(x,y)</code>.
* In [[SQL]], a mere <code>JOIN</code> is equivalent to an <code>INNER JOIN</code>, the latter clarifying that the join statement is specifically an inner join operation as opposed to an outer join operation. Likewise, one may omit the <code>OUTER</code> from the <code>LEFT OUTER JOIN</code>, <code>RIGHT OUTER JOIN</code> and <code>FULL OUTER JOIN</code>.
*[[Extension method]] in OOP languages in the form of <code>'''myObject'''.myMethod(parameter1, parameter2, parameter3)</code> is syntactic sugar for calling a global function as <code>myMethod('''myObject''', parameter1, parameter2, parameter3)</code>. The reference to the object is passed as a hidden argument, usually accessible from within the method as '''<code>this</code>'''.
*[[Evaluation strategy#Call by reference|A parameter called by reference]] is syntactic sugar for technically passing a ''pointer'' as the parameter, but syntactically handling it as the variable itself, to avoid constant pointer de-referencing in the code inside the function.
* In [[Java (Programming Language)|Java]], an <code>import</code> declaration enables the compiler to find classes that are not otherwise specified with fully qualified names. For example <code>import javax.swing.*;</code> allows the programmer to reference a [[Swing (Java)|Swing]] object such as <code>javax.swing.JButton</code> using the shorter name <code>JButton</code>.
* In the [[ES6]] version of [[JavaScript]], arrow functions have a short form <code>(x) => x + 1</code>, which is equivalent to the longer form <code>(x) => { return x + 1; }</code>.
* In [[Scala (programming language)|Scala]], triple questions marks (<code> ??? </code>) is equivalent to <code> throw new NotImplementedError </code>. This is useful to mark a place for code that has not yet been written.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31302524/what-does-the-triple-question-mark-mean-in-scala|title=Stack Overflow: What does the triple question mark mean in scala?|access-date=23 January 2024}}</ref>
* In [[JavaScript]], if the key and value are the same in an object, you can only write it once. For example, <code>{name: name}</code> is equivalent to <code>{name}</code>. This is called the Shorthand Property.