Each piece of legislation passed by the Parliament of Malaysia is known as an Act.

Each modern Act has a long title and a short title. A short title provides a convenient name for referring to an individual Act, such as "Consumer Protection Act 1999". The long title is more comprehensive in scope but unwieldy for convenient citation.

Each section is abbreviated to "s.", plural "ss.".

If a section has subsections, each of which has a bracketed number, e.g. "s. 4(1)" is subsection 1 of section 4. Subsections are subdivided in turn into paragraphs, which are identified by an italicised letters, e,g., "s. 4(1)(d)". Subparagraphs are identified with lower-case Roman numerals, e.g. "s. 4(1)(d)(vi)".

When an amendment to an Act requires the insertion of a new section part of the way through a numerical sequence, then sequential capital letters are used following the appropriate number. Thus, a new section inserted between s. 4 and s. 5 will be numbered "s. 4A".

The sections within a lengthy or complex Act are sometimes grouped together for convenience to form a Part. Each Part is abbreviated to "Pt.". "Part" may in turn be subdivided into "chapters", abbreviated to "ch.". Other groupings are occasionally found as well.

Each Schedule is abbreviated to "Sch.".

For examples:

• Paragraph (a) within subsection 1 of section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act 1999 is cited as:
  Consumer Protection Act 1999, s. 10(1)(a)
  
  
• Part 3 of the Consumer Protection Act 1999 is cited as:
  Consumer Protection Act 1999, Pt. III
  
  
• Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Specific Relief Act 1950 is cited as:
  Specific Relief Act 1950, Pt.II Ch. II