Procedural programming is a programming paradigm, derived from imperative programming [Imperative programming], based on the concept of the procedure call. Procedures (a type of routine or subroutine [Subroutine]) simply contain a series of computational steps to be carried out. Any given procedure might be called at any point during a program’s execution, including by other procedures or itself. The first major procedural programming languages appeared circa 1957–1964, including Fortran, ALGOL, COBOL, PL/I and BASIC. Pascal and C were published circa 1970–1972.
(“Procedural Programming” 2023)