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Java vs Python: Battle Of The Best

Published Apr 02, 2019Last updated Sep 28, 2019
Java vs Python: Battle Of The Best

This comparison on Java vs Python will provide you with a crisp knowledge about both the programming languages and help you find out which one fits your goal better. Java and Python are two of the hottest programming languages in the market right now because of their versatility, efficiency, and automation capabilities. This Java vs Python blog will provide you with a complete insight into the languages in the following sequence:

Let’s go back in time and look at the origin of both the languages and find out if Python is similar to Java.

Java is an object-oriented language with a C/C++-like syntax that is familiar to many programmers. It is dynamically linked, allowing new code to be downloaded and run, but not dynamically typed.

Python is the older of the two languages, first released in 1991 by its inventor, Guido van Rossum. It is a readable, efficient and powerful high level language with automatic memory management.

What is the difference between Python & Java? Both the languages have similarities and differences which makes it more difficult to select one out of the two. The most common question asked by the programmers is that if Python is better than Java. So let’s begin the comparison and find out the winner in Java vs Python.

Let’s look at the  factors  we will be using for the  comparison on Java vs Python :

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The Table shows that Python has a slight edge over Java but let’s dwell in to the details of the comparison factors and find out which programming language is better.

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SPEED

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In terms of speed, Java is faster than Python as it is a compiled language. It takes less time to execute a code.

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Python is an interpreted language and it determines the type of data at run time which makes it slower comparatively.

Legacy

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Java’s history in the enterprise and its slightly more verbose coding style mean that Java legacy systems are typically larger and more numerous than python’s.

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Python has less legacy problem so organization finds difficulty for the script to copy and paste codes and gives it a slight edge over the other languages.

Another confusion that arises when we talk about the two languages is that which one is easier between Java & python. So let’s have a look at the number of lines required while writing a code in both the languages.

CODE

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Java is very verbose as compared to Python. It takes 10 lines of code to read from a file in Java.

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It only takes 2 lines of code in Python. This makes Python a more preferable language.

PRACTICAL AGILITY

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Java enjoys more undeviating refactoring support than python thanks to its static type system and universality of IDE’s in development. It is more popular for mobile and web applications.

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Python has always had an existence in the talent space and is considered to be the most favorable language for Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, IoT and a lot more.

TRENDS

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India

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While not as trendy as it once was,  Java is still the most popular programming language by virtually any measure. On the other hand, Python’s growth has been astronomical, especially in developed, high-income countries.  The reasons for this amazing growth include developer productivity , language flexibility , library support, community support, and ease of learning.

SALARY

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Now most of us are wondering if Python is going to replace Java in the recent times. When we compare the growth of both the engineers in case of freshers, Python has a little edge over java due to its increased demand in the recent times. Nowadays, the jobs are mostly related to automation and artificial Intelligence which Prefer Python over Java and that’s why we can see the shift in the graph.

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Whereas if we look at the growth in case of experienced engineers , java dominates over the time. Because Java has been in use way before python became popular. The experience engineers find it convenient for them to stick to their comfort zone instead of moving to a new language.

BASIC DIFFERENCES

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Now with this, we come to an end of this comparison on Java vs Python. I Hope you guys enjoyed this article and understood how Python has a slight edge over Java and wins the battle in most of the factors. So, if you have read this, you might have a clear idea about which programming language is better and which one you should opt for.

If you found this blog informative, you can go ahead and read similar blogs here

Got a question for us? Please mention it in the comments section of “Java vs Python” and we will get back to you

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post comments18Replies
Jesse Howard
6 years ago

Use the right tool for the job. The idea that one is better overall than another is silly. They both have strengths and weaknesses. If I am writing a microservice, I would choose python over java. If I was writing a desktop app I would choose java (actually would use js/electron these days but that wasn’t an option). At the end of the day my personal preference is to never use java again. For example if I really need performance, I am going C++. If I need rapid agile development and microservices, I am using a much higher level language like python, node, go, etc. that have much smaller runtimes compared to the jre. This makes s huge difference in infrastructure costs especially in cloud infrastructure as a service providers like AWS or GCP.

Sayantini
6 years ago

Thanks a lot for sharing your insight :)

Carmine Tambascia
6 years ago

Nice article. Though Python support also OO( Object Oriented) paradigma. It is actually the main use ( like Django is wrote in python, leveraging OO programming) before it become popular in ML, data science and AI

Sayantini
6 years ago

Thanks for the information :)

Antti Ahti
6 years ago

It’s an interesting comparison but I find the premise quite odd. I mean, in which real-life situation do you have to choose between Java and Python? If you’re doing native Android apps, you’re choosing between Java and Kotlin. If you’re doing data science, your best options are Python and R. For web backends, you should consider Java, Python, JS, PHP, C#, Ruby…

Choose the right tool for the job. It doesn’t hurt to know multiple languages. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Sayantini
6 years ago

I agree. This comparison is mostly for beginners and to help them get started with one of the two languages. Thanks :)

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