Any programming language that specifies explicit manipulation of the state of the computer system, not to be confused with a prOcedural language, which specifies an explicit sequence of steps to perform. An example of an imperative (but non-prOcedural) language is a data manipulation language for a {relational database management system}. This specifies changes to the database but does not necessarily require anyone to specify a sequence of steps. (2003-06-23)