Line of code

The definition of a "line of code" though basic to many software metrics lacks a formal definition. What a "line of code" means will certainly vary across languages, but it also varies for a given language.

In the C language, for example, a line of code might be (1) a statement terminated by a newline, (2) a statement terminated by a semicolon, or amy line in the program terminated by a newline (comments includes).

for (i=0; i<100; ++i) /* How many lines of code is this? */