The present invention relates to a system and methodology to enable programming of generalized comprehensions in an imperative language environment. In one aspect, a system is provided to facilitate employment of user-definable and generalized comprehensions in accordance with imperative languages. The system includes a language component to enable programming of comprehension notations in an imperative language and an interface component to describe a meaning of the comprehension notations. A translation component facilitates execution of the comprehension notations in accordance with the imperative language.