Why Python is Popular Programming Language for Automation?
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It’s rare to see tutorials teaching how to automate something using other programming languages than Python. Have you ever wondered why is that so? In fact, Kotlin is a fun language too. Why not automate with it. In this article, I’ll go through three main points which make Python usable for automation compared to other programming languages.
Easy to learn and use
Before learning Python, I have done automation in Java, and I can tell you that it’s not fun. You’ve to set up a project, write more lines of code, etc.
Python is easy to learn, which makes it the number one reason to use it for automation. Whether you’re a beginner or have done programming in other languages, you can grasp Python super fast since it has a really simple syntax.
Minimalism is another thing that contributes to ease of learning and use. Whenever you create a new Java or Kotlin project, you see things like classes and functions that may not be your concern at the start. For example, if you create a Java project, you need to have a class, then the main function where you bother with different keywords.
Seeing other keywords when you start a new project may confuse you and take your focus away from the problem you’re trying to solve. So basically, in Python, you type what is needed, and you can improve your code along the way when you learn new concepts. Since you don’t need any pre-filled template code or dependencies initially, you can start a new project by just creating an empty file with .py extension in your favourite text editor.
Community
Another reason why Python is an excellent language for automation is its vast active community. It means that there are people out there who actively use the language, create tutorials, libraries, etc. As Python has a big community, it’s used in various fields other than automation, such as data science, web development, test automation, and so on. Being used in many areas also opens new job opportunities. So, if you learn Python for automation, then maybe you can specialize in a job that interests you and land your dream job.
Libraries
The final reason why Python is used for automation is the libraries you can use for many purposes. Since Python has an active community and language is used for different applications, you can find a library for almost everything you need. For example, Selenium is a library meant automating web applications for testing purposes, but many people use it for web scraping. If you’re interested in Python libraries for automation, you can check out this article.
To sum up, Python is used often for automation because it’s easy to learn, has an active community, and has tons of libraries to cover many automation needs.
I hope you found this article useful.
