Java vs Python — Comparison between the Best Programming Languages

Aayushi Johari
Edureka
Published in
7 min readNov 27, 2018

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Java vs Python — Edureka

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:

  • History of Java & Python
  • Comparison Factors
  1. Speed
  2. Legacy
  3. Code
  4. Practical Agility
  5. Trends
  6. Salary
  7. Syntax

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

History of Java & Python

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.

Comparison Factors

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:

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.

Speed

Java

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

Python

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

Legacy

Java

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.

Python

Python has less legacy problem so organization finds difficulty for the script to copy and pastecodes 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

Java

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

Python

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

Practical Agility

Java

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.

Python

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

United States

India

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

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.

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

Syntax

Number of Lines

Java

public class HelloWorld {

public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, World");
}

}

Python

print ('Hello, World!')

Semicolon

Java

class programming {

programming() {

system.out.println("Constructor method called");

}

public static void main(String[] args) {

programming object = new programming();

}

}

Python

class Student:

def __init__(self, name):

print("This is parameterized constructor")

self.name = name

def show(self):

print("Hello", self.name)

student = Student("Daniel")

student.show()

Indentation

Java

class Greater {

public static void main (String args[]) {

int a = 10;

if (a>0) {

system.out.println("a is positive");

}

else {

system.out.println("a is not positive");

}

system.out.println("This is executed");

}

}

Python

a=200

b=300

if b > a:

print("b is greater than a")

elif a==b:

print("a and b are equal")

else:

print("a is greater than b")

Read File

Java

import java.io.*;
public class ReadFromFile2
{
public static void main(String[] args)throws Exception
{
File file = new File("C:UsersdanielDesktoptest.txt");

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));

String st;
while ((st = br.readLine()) != null)
System.out.println(st);
}
}

Python

> f = open("test.txt",'r',encoding = 'utf-8')
>>> f.read()

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 wish to check out more articles on the market’s most trending technologies like Artificial Intelligence, DevOps, Ethical Hacking, then you can refer to Edureka’s official site.

Do look out for other articles in this series which will explain the various other aspects of Python and Data Science.

1. Python Tutorial

2. Python Programming Language

3. Python Functions

4. File Handling in Python

5. Python Numpy Tutorial

6. Scikit Learn Machine Learning

7. Python Pandas Tutorial

8. Matplotlib Tutorial

9. Tkinter Tutorial

10. Requests Tutorial

11. PyGame Tutorial

12. OpenCV Tutorial

13. Web Scraping With Python

14. PyCharm Tutorial

15. Machine Learning Tutorial

16. Linear Regression Algorithm from scratch in Python

17. Python for Data Science

18. Loops in Python

19. Python RegEx

20. Python Projects

21. Machine Learning Projects

22. Arrays in Python

23. Sets in Python

24. Multithreading in Python

25. Python Interview Questions

26. How To Become A Python Developer?

27. Python Lambda Functions

28. How Netflix uses Python?

29. What is Socket Programming in Python

30. Python Database Connection

31. Golang vs Python

32. Python Seaborn Tutorial

33. Python Career Opportunities

Originally published at https://www.edureka.co on November 27, 2018.

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Aayushi Johari
Edureka

A technology enthusiast who likes writing about different technologies including Python, Data Science, Java, etc. and spreading knowledge.