What is a macro in computer science?

Answer 1

A macro is a small 'program' or 'computer' instruction, usually created via a scripting language, the instruction represents a larger sequence of instructions. For example say every morning when you get to work you * open email * open a workspace * open the calculator * open a calendar * log into a webpage well you could record or write all of these as a macro and instead of clicking this that and the other you could click one thing - the macro you recorded or wrote and go get a cup of coffee and when you got back your system would be ready for you to go to work!

Answer 2

The term macro can mean many things. All macros have a nature of "something pre-recorded or pre-defined." Examples of macros include these:

Some tools can record mouse movements and keyboard activity, store these in "keyboard macros" (the name varies), and replay those pre-defined mouse and keyboard operations on request. For example, a software tester might record and replay user input sequences to automate testing of subsequent versions of a product.

Most standard office applications support the definition of macros. In this context, a macro is a small program, written in a programming language such as VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), Python, Perl, or many others. Macros of this nature are often very simple, but can grow to be very complex programs. For example, a macro in Excel can implement complex user-defined statistic evaluation of data, a macro in a 3D rendering software package can rotate and move a character, etc.

In some programming languages, macros are small named sequences of instructions. When invoked, these sequences are inserted in-situ at compile-time. In the C Programming languages, macros are defined using the preprocessor's #define construct. Many other high-level programming languages and most assembler languages provide similar facilities.