Did you know that Python has been downloaded over 23 million times for Windows? No wonder the number continues to grow; as the language allows users to produce maintainable features in record times, that too with a minimum of developers. Python is one of the official languages of Google and is ranked the second most sought-after coding language over the internet. Indeed, Python is one of the highest-paying skills these days, with Python developers earning around $120K on average annually. These interesting facts and many other reasons will lure you into pursuing a Python certification.
The Python programming language is considered an interpreted, high-level, general-purpose language that is used by a number of renowned companies like Facebook, Spotify, IBM, Instagram, NASA, YouTube, Dropbox, and Google. First released in 1991, Python is a human-friendly language that is quite simple to understand, write easily, and read quickly. Today, it is being widely used in a variety of applications like web development, game development, scientific computing, desktop GUI applications, and data science. Whether you are willing to become a software developer, machine learning engineer, data scientist, data analyst, or full-stack developer, knowledge of Python is asked for by employers.
Let us know more about the Python programming language, what are its uses, and its benefits.
Benefits of Using Python
Python is the essential programming language for any web-based programmer. Within 25 years time, Python has managed to reach a level quite higher than other languages and comes under one of the fastest-growing skills. With a rich set of libraries and the introduction of new technologies, Python seems to have a prospective future. Let us discuss some of the important benefits of using Python as your preferred programming language.
Easy to grasp
One of the best things beginners would tell you about Python is that it is easy to learn compared to other languages. Python has simple English-like syntax, which is easy to remember and use in code. The readability and other structural elements of Python are easy for people who haven’t worked with a programming language before. Moreover, the language requires fewer lines of code to perform any task.
Free and open source
Python is developed under the OSI-approved open-source license which makes it freely usable and distributable, also for commercial use. The language features a huge and growing ecosystem with a variety of open-source libraries and packages. Being free of cost means individuals, as well as organizations, can use Python and do not worry about any hidden costs.
Huge set of support libraries
There are many complex tasks that you can perform using just some lines of Python code by using some libraries in your program. For example, SciPy is a useful Python library when you want to perform scientific computing, NumPy for numerical computing, and TensorFlow, Pandas, and matplotlib for machine learning. Similarly, there are other libraries for web development, data science, data analysis, and other tasks.
Flexibility
Flexibility refers to the measure of how easily software can adapt to changing requirements. When we say Python is a flexible programming language, we mean that it wasn’t created to answer a specific business need, so it isn’t driven by templates or specific APIs. This is why it is well suited to the fast development of many applications. The language has rich text processing tools, supports the building of GUI-based applications, and runs such applications on multiple operating systems.
Uses of Python
Now that you know the benefits Python offers developers, let us understand what applications can be built using the language. Here are some of the areas where Python language is used widely.
Data analysis
Data analysis is one of the most popular applications where Python is widely used. Apart from the R programming language, Python has no competition in this field. Many popular data mining and analysis tools are written in this language. Data analysts and data scientists can use Python to separate relevant data from raw sets. Python code can be written to analyze data and identify hidden trends and patterns.
Scientific and numerical computing
We already mentioned above that Python has valuable libraries like SciPy and NumPy that make scientific computing and numeric computing easier. The language supports modules for image processing, optimization, signal processing, and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Similarly, Python’s NumPy library is loaded with mathematical and numerical functions and assures accurate calculation with arrays and matrices.
Automation
In this digital world, automation has become the need of the hour, and Python is being effectively used for this purpose. The language can be used to automate tedious manual tasks like checking information stored in databases, financial analysis, data visualizations, running recommendation engines, or building chatbots that can solve many customer queries without any explicit human input.
Game development
Though not quite popular for web development, Python has some advanced frameworks that can be used to develop state-of-the-art software and games as well. Not referring to high-end games, Python is more popular for simpler games and allows for building prototypes and developing ideas in the gaming industry.
Apart from these uses, Python is also used in artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain applications, web scraping, embedded systems, and business applications. Now is the right time to gain expertise in Python and use your skills effectively.