Published by Academic Press in 1972, Structured Programming brings together three contributions by Edsger Dijkstra, Ole-Johan Dahl and Tony Hoare. It became one of the most influential works on how computer programs should be designed and written.

Dijkstra’s opening section argues for structuring programs in a disciplined way, so that their behaviour can be understood and reasoned about, rather than relying on unrestricted jumps in control flow. Hoare contributes a treatment of data structuring, and, with Dahl, a discussion of hierarchical program structures and the role of abstraction in managing complexity.

Together the essays make the case that clarity and simplicity of structure are central to producing reliable software. The book helped establish structured programming as a guiding approach in the field and shaped the teaching of programming for many years.