In computer programming, transient is a property of any element in the system that is temporary. The term applies to transient applications, i.e. software for the end-user which is displayed with a transient application posture; transient data, which is discarded after it is no longer needed by the computation; and transient code which are subroutines or software components that are loaded in the system only for a fraction of the total run time.
Examples of applications of the term are described below.