Line numbers also provided a convenient means of distinguishing between code to be entered into the program and direct mode commands to be executed immediately when entered by the user (which do not have line numbers). The primary reason for this is that most operating systems at the time lacked interactive text editors since the programmer's interface was usually limited to a line editor, line numbers provided a mechanism by which specific lines in the source code could be referenced for editing, and by which the programmer could insert a new line at a specific point. The purpose of line numbers was for branching and for reference by formatting statements.īoth JOSS and BASIC made line numbers a required element of syntax. In Fortran, not every statement needed a line number, and line numbers did not have to be in sequential order. Programmers could also assign line numbers to statements in older programming languages, such as Fortran, JOSS, and BASIC. In the C programming language the line number of a source code line is one greater number of new-line characters read or introduced up to that point. The most common method of assigning numbers to lines is to assign every line a unique number, starting at 1 for the first line, and incrementing by 1 for each successive line.
In computing, a line number is a method used to specify a particular sequence of characters in a text file. Identifier of a sequence of characters in a text file
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