A transformation language is a computer language designed to transform some input text in a certain formal language

Formal language

A formal language is a set of words—that is, finite strings of letters, symbols, or tokens that are defined in the language. The set from which these letters are taken is the alphabet over which the language is defined. A formal language is often defined by means of a formal grammar...

 into a modified output text that meets some specific goal.

Program transformation systems such as Stratego/XT

Stratego/XT

Stratego/XT is a language and toolset for constructing stand-alone program transformation systems.It combines the Stratego transformation language with the XT toolset of transformation components, providing a framework for constructing stand-alone...

, TXL

TXL (programming language)

TXL is a special-purpose programming language originally designed by Charles Halpern-Hamu and James Cordy at the University of Toronto in 1985. The acronym "TXL" originally stood for "Turing eXtender Language" after the language's original purpose, the specification and rapid prototyping of...

, DMS

DMS Software Reengineering Toolkit

The DMS Software Reengineering Toolkit is a proprietary set of program transformation tools available for automating custom source program analysis, modification, translation or generation of software systems for arbitrary mixtures of source languages for large scale software systems.DMS has been...

, and ASF+SDF

ASF+SDF Meta Environment

The ASF+SDF Meta-Environment is an IDE and toolset for interactive program analysis and transformation. It combines SDF , ASF and other technologies.Some of the features:...

 all have transformation languages as a major component. The transformation languages for these systems are driven by declarative descriptions of the structure of the input text (typically a grammar), allowing them to be applied to wide variety of formal languages and documents.

Macro languages are a kind of transformation languages to transform a meta language into specific higher programming language like Java

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

, C++

C++

C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

, Fortran

Fortran

Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...

In the model-driven engineering

Model-driven engineering

Model-driven engineering is a software development methodology which focuses on creating and exploiting domain models , rather than on the computing concepts...

 technical space, there are model transformation language

Model Transformation Language

A model transformation language in systems and software engineering is a language for model transformation.- Overview :The notion of model transformation is of central importance to information technology. A software system may be seen as a set of information transformations...

s (MTLs), that take as input models conforming to a given metamodel and produce as output models conforming to a different metamodel. An example of such a language is the QVT

QVT

QVT is a standard set of languages for model transformation defined by the Object Management Group .- Overview :...

 OMG

Object Management Group

Object Management Group is a consortium, originally aimed at setting standards for distributed object-oriented systems, and is now focused on modeling and model-based standards.- Overview :...

 standard.

There are also low-level languages such as the Lx family implemented by the bootstrapping method

Bootstrapping (compilers)

In computer science, bootstrapping is the process of writing a compiler in the target programming language which it is intended to compile...

. The L0 language may be considered as assembler for transformation languages. There is also a high-level graphical language built on upon Lx called MOLA.

There are a number of XML transformation language

XML transformation language

An XML transformation language is a programming language designed specifically to transform an input XML document into an output XML document which satisfies some specific goal.There are two special cases of transformation:...

s. These include XSLT

XSLT

XSLT is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format,...

, XQuery

XQuery

- Features :XQuery provides the means to extract and manipulate data from XML documents or any data source that can be viewed as XML, such as relational databases or office documents....

, STX

Streaming Transformations for XML

Streaming Transformations for XML is an XML transformation language intended as a high-speed, low memory consumption alternative to XSLT version 1.0 and 2.0. Current work on XSLT 3.0 includes Streaming capabilities.- Overview :...

, FXT, XDuce, CDuce

CDuce

CDuce is an XML-oriented functional language, which extends XDuce in a few directions.It features XML regular expression types, XML regular expression patterns,XML iterators...

, HaXml

HaXml

HaXml is a collection of utilities for parsing, filtering, transforming, and generating XML documents using Haskell. Its basic facilities include:* a parser for XML,* a separate error-correcting parser for HTML,* an XML validator,...

, XMLambda, and FleXML

FleXML

FleXML is an XML transformation language originally developed by Kristofer Rose. It allows a programmer to specify actions in C programming language or C++, and associate those actions with element definitions in an XML DTD...

.

See also

Concepts: data conversion Data conversion Data conversion is the conversion of computer data from one format to another. Throughout a computer environment, data is encoded in a variety of ways. For example, computer hardware is built on the basis of certain standards, which requires that data contains, for example, parity bit checks.... data element Data element In metadata, the term data element is an atomic unit of data that has precise meaning or precise semantics. A data element has:# An identification such as a data element name# A clear data element definition# One or more representation terms... data mapping Data mapping Data mapping is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models. Data mapping is used as a first step for a wide variety of data integration tasks including:... data migration Data migration Data migration is the process of transferring data between storage types, formats, or computer systems. Data migration is usually performed programmatically to achieve an automated migration, freeing up human resources from tedious tasks... data transformation Data transformation In metadata and data warehouse, a data transformation converts data from a source data format into destination data.Data transformation can be divided into two steps:... (*) metadata Metadata The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at... model transformation Model transformation A model transformation, in model-driven engineering, is an automatable way of ensuring that a family of models is consistent, in a precise sense which the software engineer can define... refinement Refinement In formal methods, program refinement is the verifiable transformation of an abstract formal specification into a concrete executable program. Stepwise refinement allows this process to be done in stages...  (contrast)

Languages and typical transforms: ATL ATLAS Transformation Language ATL is a model transformation language and toolkit developed and maintained by OBEO and AtlanMod. It was initiated by the team... AWK (tabular data transforms) Identity transform Identity transform The identity transform is a data transformation that copies the source data into the destination data without change.The identity transformation is considered an essential process in creating a reusable transformation library. By creating a library of variations of the base identity... QVT QVT QVT is a standard set of languages for model transformation defined by the Object Management Group .- Overview :... TXL TXL TXL may refer to:* IATA airport code for Berlin-Tegel International Airport* Name of a character in Today's Special* TXL programming language...  (general) XQuery XQuery - Features :XQuery provides the means to extract and manipulate data from XML documents or any data source that can be viewed as XML, such as relational databases or office documents....  (XML) XSLT XSLT XSLT is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format,... (XML)

External links

• The Program transformation Wiki