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The instructions that tell a computer what to do are written in machine code. Machine code is a series of numbers written in binary.

Programmers find machine code difficult to learn, program in and debug. As a result, the majority of programmers write programs in high-level programming languages. These languages are closer to the programmer’s natural language. For example, Python uses print, if, input and while statements - all words from the English language - to form instructions. In fact, instructions in Python often look like abbreviated English sentences.

Programmers write in high-level languages because they are easier to understand and are less complex than machine code. This makes both programming and debugging simpler. The programmer can focus on what needs to be done rather than on how the computer works.

For example, in many high-level languages, to place a message on the screen a programmer would use the statement print. The programmer does not know how the computer generates the message. They just need to know how to use the print statement.

High-level languages have a disadvantage - they are restricted to the number of statements built into them. If the programmer wants a program to do something but a statement does not exist to do so, the task cannot be done.

Commonly used high-level languages

Many types of high-level language exist and are in common use today, including:

• Python
• Java
• C++
• C#
• VB.Net

Source code

Any program written in a high-level language is known as source code. Source code must be translated into machine code before the computer can understand and execute it.

High-level languages are known as one-to-many languages. Each high-level instruction is translated into many machine code instructions.