PV-WAVE provides a set of data types and operations to represent data with a natural and efficient notation. You can easily define and use structures containing aggregate data types. PV-WAVE variables, procedures, operators, and functions operate on scalar, vector, and array data with no change in notation or meaning.

In PV-WAVE, whenever there was a choice between brevity (and perhaps obscurity) and verbosity, the most readable alternative was selected.

Because scientists write their formulas using infix notation with parentheses, PV-WAVE has an expression syntax that resembles FORTRAN or C, where operators are evaluated according to precedence and left-to-right sequence.