In programming, to
insert spaces in front of
lines of
code that form the body of
a
loop,
if statement,
function, or other program
structure. Nested structures
should be indented further. This is generally considered
good programming
practice but not
absolutely necessary.
In some languages, indentation has special meaning. For instance, in Fortran, the
first 6 characters of each line have special meaning and normal program code is
indented 6 characters. In Python, indentation is used to define the beginnings and
endings of program structures, as described above, but it therefore becomes necessary.