Editing Self-replication (section)

===A self-replicating computer program===
{{Main|Quine (computing)}}

In [[computer science]] a [[Quine (computing)|quine]] is a self-reproducing computer program that, when executed, outputs its own code. For example, a quine in the [[Python (programming language)|Python programming language]] is:

:{{code|1=a='a=%r;print(a%%a)';print(a%a)|2=python}}

A more trivial approach is to write a program that will make a copy of any stream of data that it is directed to, and then direct it at itself. In this case the program is treated as both executable code, and as data to be manipulated. This approach is common in most self-replicating systems, including biological life, and is simpler as it does not require the program to contain a complete description of itself.

In many programming languages an empty program is legal, and executes without producing errors or other output. The output is thus the same as the source code, so the program is trivially self-reproducing.