Hadronic structure, low x physics and diffraction

A review is presented of numerous recent results, particularly those submitted to the EPS-HEP99 conference: very high Q^2 ep interactions and direct tests of the Standard Model, new measurements of the structure of the proton (including high x parton distributions and tests of QCD involving the gluon distribution), low x physics (tests of the BFKL evolution), diffraction in DIS at HERA, hard diffraction at the Tevatron and exclusive production of vector particles at HERA. The focus is on hard QCD features.