2023-05-26

Program Code is Uncountable

There are some words in English that are uncountable. For example: cheese, furniture, music, evidence, research, knowledge, information, etc. When we speak of those things in plural, we still use the singular form: "I would like to order a four-cheese pizza", "Let me give you some of my furniture", "We need to consider all the evidence", etc.

Another such word is code, in the context of programming.

When referring to program code, the word code is uncountable. "I wrote the code for all those apps", "You have a lot of code to review", "We write new code every day".

There are certain other meanings of the word code that do have a plural form; for example, "Give me the access codes" or "See the list of HTTP status codes"; but these meanings refer to numbers, or ciphers, in other words data, not program code. Program code is always uncountable.

Reference: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries - English - Code (Scroll down to meaning 3, "programming")

Now, we live in free societies where everyone enjoys freedom of speech, and more generally, freedom of expression. You can choose to say whatever you like, just as you can choose to dress in whatever way you like.

But when you say "codes" referring to program code, please do keep in mind that you come across like this complete idiot:

Or like this complete idiot:

Do you want to come across like a complete idiot?

The choice is yours.

(Grumpy cat meme unnecessary; this was grumpy enough by itself.)

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