Java vs Python: Which One Should You Choose?

Java is more verbose than Python. It takes five times more lines to write Java than it does Python. If you miss a semicolon in Java, the code won’t work, but Python is more forgiving. Python uses whitespace to define program blocks, while Java defines each block using curly braces. The number of whitespaces in Python is not fixed.

With Java, you can’t write code without defining a class, since it’s a compiled and statically-typed language. You also have to invoke a compiler before you can run directly. Python is an interpreted, dynamically-typed programming language, which means that it has no command for declaring variables. A variable is created the moment you first assign a value to it.

Python’s coding format is linear and less dispersed than Java. Python uses whitespaces, tabs for nesting, and a full colon to start loops and conditional blocks. Some developers believe Python code is more uniform and easy to read than Java because your formatting choices are more limited. Java is a strict language that uses semicolons, parentheses, and curly braces. It’s harder to understand other people’s code and large programs in Java.

Python requires fewer lines, making it easier to handle text files. The constructs are more concise and less demanding. On the other hand, one of the most common complaints about Java is that it’s too repetitious. Still, the verbose nature of Java allows you to describe commands in a specific way.

Speed is crucial in enterprise-level application development. Since it’s a compiled language, Java is faster at executing code than Python. Python is an interpreted language which determines the type of data at runtime.

Java is a statically-typed language, which means that you have to declare a variable before it сan be assigned a value. Python is a dynamic language; it doesn’t require you to declare a variable while writing code because it is assumed at runtime.

Many programming courses don’t recommend Java for beginners as it’s a more complex language with longer lines. It’s easier to grasp the concepts of programming with Python due to its dynamic nature and brevity. Once you’ve mastered the basics you can jump to C-family programming languages like Java.

Java is a compiled programming language; it is directly converted into a machine code that the processor can execute. As a result, it tends to be more efficient to execute than interpreted languages, which run through programs line by line without previously compiling them into machine language instructions.

You’ll eventually have to test your functions to see if they work correctly. In Java, you’ll only need to compile a class and then interpret it before running a code that invokes a specific method. In Python, you have to open a console, activate the environment, run a Python interactive mode, and invoke the necessary function. While you can check your work in both languages, the process takes less time in Python, and you can easily see the result.

 Excessive memory usage is a serious issue for enterprise applications. Java is often criticized for excessive memory usage that can result in memory leaks or badly written software. Once your application no longer references an object, the Java garbage collector deletes it and clears the memory so that your application can use this memory again. This means that in Java, the more objects you have, the more memory your application consumes. Unlike Java, Python manages objects by using reference counting. This means that the memory manager keeps track of the number of references to each object in the program. When the object is no longer being used, the garbage collector (part of the memory manager) automatically frees the memory from that particular object.

Python comes preinstalled on most Linux distributions and is available as a package on all others. It’s available on a wide variety of platforms including Linux and Mac OS X. You just need to download the binary code applicable for your platform and install Python. When it comes to Java, you should download and install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) — a piece of software designed to run other software. The JRE contains the Java class libraries, the Java class loader, and the Java Virtual Machine.