Top 5 Programming languages for Data Science and Machine Learning in 2024
These are the best programming language for Data Science and Machine learning includes Python, R, SQL, Java, and Scala
If you want to learn Data Science and Machine Learning in 2024 but not sure which programming language to choose then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared, best Data Science courses for beginners as well as free Data Science and free Machine learning courses, and in this article, I am going to share the best programming languages you can learn for Data Science and Machine learning in 2024.
Data Science is an exciting field and more and more programmers are aiming to become Data Scientist but one question often puzzles them is which programming language they should learn for Data Science?
Many of them confused between popular Data Science programming languages like Python and R, and some people like Java developers ask me a lot if they can use Java for Data Science or not.
Being an author of a Programming blog, I have asked this question many times and I finally thought to put together my thought in written form as an article.
I have also been sharing the best programming languages for quite some time also and in the past, I have shared the best programming language for web development and mobile app development, if you haven’t checked them then you can also check them if you wish to become a web developer or mobile app developer in 2024.
In order to choose the best programming language for Data Science, you need to first know what do Data scientists do in their day-to-day job? Because that’s what make difference. If you choose the wrong language then you will suffer in productivity and performance and that can impede your career growth.
One of the most common tasks for Data Science is to procure data, clean them and massage them so that it can be analyzed. More often than not, you need to write a quick script to do this job and for that, you need a programming language that has the right tools and allows you to do this job in few lines of code.
At the same time, you don’t want to choose a programming language with poor performance because time is critical and you often need to process a large amount of data. If your script is taking days to process the data then it won’t help much.
Keeping all these things in mind, here is a list of the best programming languages for Data Science.
5 Best Programming Languages for Data Science and Machine Learning in 2024
For any Data Scientist or programmer aspiring to become a Data Scientist, you can use the below list to choose the correct and best programming language for Machine Learning and Data Science in 2024.
Along with sharing the pros and cons of each programming language, I have also shared useful resources like online courses and books to learn those programming languages. You can use them to acquire the necessary skills.
1. Python
Python is the #1 programming language in the world at the moment and there are many reasons for it but the most important reason for that is it's multi-purpose. You can learn Python and can be as effective in Data Science as in Web Development or Game Development.
The main reason for learning Python for Data Science is its powerful libraries like NumPy, Pandas, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, MatplotLib, and much more.
By using libraries like Pandas, you can easily clean your data and transform them into the format you need. With TensorFlow, you can do serious Machine learning and create a powerful model.
In short, Python is the best programming language for Data Science and tools like Jupyter also make collaboration with other Data Scientists easy, as you can share your code, your model and work on them together.
Python is also very easy to learn which makes it ideal for beginners. If you want to learn just one programming language for Data Science, I would suggest learning Python and if you need resources, I recommend Python A-Z™: Python For Data Science With Real Exercises! course by Kirill Eremenko on Udemy. It’s an awesome course to learn Python with a focus on Data Science related tasks and exercises.
2. R Programming language
R is another popular programming language for statistics, Mathematics, and Data Science field. It’s not as multiple purposes as Python but it's a domain-specific language and rightly suited for Data Science and Machine Learning.
R is a direct descendant of the older S programming language and it is written in C and Fortran, which means performance is not really a concern here. One of the main reasons why R is well suited for Data Science is because of its huge collection of packages for quantitative and statistical application.
This includes neural networks, non-linear regression, phylogenetics, advanced plotting, and many, many others. Also, tools like R Studio makes it easy to work with the R programming language.
You can also use the ggllot2 library for Data Visualisation which is very important for Data Scientists. It’s a little bit tough to learn compared to Python but one of the best programming languages for data science and Machine Learning.
If you want to learn the R programming language and need resources then I highly recommend this R Programming A-Z™: R For Data Science With Real Exercises course on Udemy. It’s both up-to-date and comprehensive, yet affordable.
3. SQL
SQL stands for Structured query language and it's been around for quite some time. SQL is a declarative programming language and it's the standard one to interact with relational databases.
This is another must-have skill for any programmer but more importantly for Data Scientists. You can use SQL to store and load data from the database, you can also write SQL queries and scripts to clean and transform data.
The only thing which limits SQL for Data Science is its analytical capability as apart from aggregating and summing, counting, and averaging data, calculating maximum and minimum, your options are limited but vendor implementations like PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle complements them with more power.
Whether you learn Python or R, I highly recommend you to learn SQL, it's not very difficult but will help you immensely and it will serve you for a long time. If you need a resource, I suggest you join SQL for the Data Science course on Coursera. It’s a great course, offered by the University of UC Davis.
By the way, if you find Coursera courses useful, which they are because they are created by reputed companies and universities around the world, I suggest you join the Coursera Plus, a subscription plan from Coursera which gives you unlimited access to their most popular courses, specialization, professional certificate, and guided projects.
4. Java
Java is my favorite programming language and one of the most popular yet underrated programming languages. There are a lot of things to like about Java, it’s simple, easy to read and write and there is huge community support.
There is no way you can stick in Java, you are bound to get problems but just copy-paste your problem in Google and you will have numerous blog posts, answers helping you.
Java is also good in terms of performance as it has come a long way from the days when it compared with C++ and ridiculed for its low performance, nowadays with advanced JIT and JVM, Java is at par if not more than C++ with much more safety and productivity.
When it comes to Data Science, Java is not far behind. Yes, when it comes to productivity it’s not as good as Python because you can’t really create quick scripts in Java but for bigger projects, Java provides a better organization with its packages.
There are also quite a few machine learning and data mining libraries available for Java and other JVM languages like DL4J and H2O, a framework for distributed ML written in Java, but is available for multiple languages, including Scala, R, and Python.
If you are a beginner, I highly recommend you to join Java because it's a mainstream programming language and you can use Java not just for Data Science but for numerous other things like backend development. If you need resources, I highly recommend the Java Programming Masterclass for Software Developers on Udemy. This 8-hour long course is perfect to learn Java.
5. Scala
Scala is another JVM programming language that is blessed with the high performance and scalability required for Data Science fields. Libraries like Apache Spark, really make Scala a top choice for Big Data and Data Science.
Developed by Martin Odersky and released in 2004, Scala is a JVM programming language. It is a multi-paradigm language, enabling both object-oriented and functional approaches.
Another good thing about Scala is that Scala code is compiled to Java bytecode and runs on a JVM. This allows interoperability with the Java language itself, making Scala a very powerful general-purpose language, while also being well-suited for data science.
If you want to learn Scala and need a resource, I highly recommend this Apache Spark with Scala — Hands On with Big Data! course by Frank Kane on Udemy. It’s both comprehensive and up-to-date as well as very affordable and you can buy this on Udemy sales for just a few dollars.
That’s all about the best programming language for Data Science in 2024. For anyone who is serious about Data Science, I strongly suggest learning a combination of Python + SQL or R + SQL, which is probably the best combination of programming languages for Data Scientists. I don’t recommend learning both R and Python.
Similarly, for Java and Scala developers, I suggest using the library available in Java and Scala for Big Data and Data Science, they are not easy and productive as Python but at least you don’t need to learn a new programming language. If you can, learn Python.
And last for not least, beginners should start with Python, there is no better language to start with Python for coding and programming and then moving to Data Science.
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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you find this list of best programming languages for Data Science and Machine Learning useful then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a note.
P. S. — If you are just looking to do one thing at this moment then I suggest start learning Python, it will help you immensely with your data science journey and you can do this by joining Python A-Z™: Python For Data Science With Real Exercises! course by Kirill Eremenko on Udemy, you won’t regret your decision.
