Advantages and Disadvantages of Python

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Let’s begin by understanding a little about this famous Python programming language.

What is Python?

Python programming language is a general-purpose, interpreted, and high-level language that mainly offers code readability. It is largely used by professional programmers and developers across a variety of fields, including Web Development and Machine Learning. Like all other programming languages that you must have heard or read about, or you might have used for various reasons, Python too has its own set of pros and cons.

If you are planning to learn a particular programming language for any purpose, it is necessary that you are aware of the various features, advantages and disadvantages, uses and applications, and other such factors of that language.

As mentioned earlier, there are various advantages and disadvantages of the Python programming language. Although, in the case of Python, its advantages outweigh the set of disadvantages by a large margin, and you will learn it eventually. Most organizations make use of Python since it supports several programming paradigms.

Between the pros and cons, let us start with the outweighing advantages of Python.

Advantages of Python

In this blog on the ‘Advantages and Disadvantages of Python,’ you will first learn about some of the significant advantages of the Python programming language.

1. Easy-to-learn and Easy-to-use

Python programming language has a syntax similar to the English language, making it extremely easy and simple for anyone to read and understand its codes. You can pick up this language without much trouble and learn it easily.

This is one of the reasons why Python is better compared to other programming languages such as C, C++, or Java. Besides, Python requires relatively fewer numbers of lines of code to perform the same operations and tasks done in other programming languages with larger code blocks.

2. Improves Productivity

Another one of Python’s benefits is that it is an extremely productive language, and because of its simplicity, Python Programmers can easily focus on solving issues.

3. Interpreted Language

Python, being an interpreted language, can execute the code directly, one line after the other. Moreover, if there is any error, then rather than continuing with further execution, it instead reports back the error that occurred.

4. Open-source

Python has an open-source license and is available for users for free, allowing you to easily distribute it. With Python, you can download any source code and further modify and distribute your version of the code in Python. This feature can come in handy especially when you wish to reuse the code and save time to build innovative applications. Besides, you can change its behavior and use the older version of the code for development.

5. Easily Portable

In most languages, including the ones you have learned to read, write, and use such as C, C++, etc., you need to make changes in the code to run a given program on distinct platforms. However, that is not the case with Python programming. In Python, you need to write the code only once, and you can run it on any platform, adapting the ‘write once, run anywhere’ feature. Although, you need to make sure that you do not involve any features that are system-dependent.

6. Massive Libraries

Python’s standard library is vast, and herein, you can find all the necessary functions you require for any given task. This makes Python independent of external libraries. Although, if you do wish to use some external libraries, then with the Python package manage (pip), you can easily import several packages from the massive Python Package Index (PyPi), containing more than 200,000 packages. 

7. Easy-to-integrate with Other Programming Languages

Python has another unique feature that allows it to integrate not only with libraries, such as Jython and Cython, but also with other programming languages, including Java, C, and C++ for cross-platform development. Therefore, Python is comparatively more powerful. No programming language is complete, and it is not generally advisable to use one language for all applications and developments. Besides, similar to every other language, Python’s forte is to provide you with a massive library so that you can enjoy the strong and powerful features of other languages as well.

So far, in this blog on the advantages and disadvantages of Python, you have learned in-depth about the major advantages. Moving on, let us discuss some of its disadvantages and get a better understanding of this object-oriented programming language.

Disadvantages of Python

You have read in detail about the numerous advantages of Python programming language. Although its advantages indeed overweigh its disadvantages, Python does have a few disadvantages that you should know. Now, it is time to learn about them.

1. Low Speed

Strengths can, unfortunately, lead to some weaknesses at times. Here is such a case. Yes, Python is a dynamically-typed and interpreted language, but this means that the code is executed line-by-line, further leading to its slow execution. Python’s dynamic nature is mainly the reason for its low speed since there is a requirement for some extra work during the execution process. This is one of the reasons why Python is not used when speed is a significant aspect of a given program.

2. Inefficient Memory Consumption

To offer some simplicity to programmers and developers, Python needs to make some tradeoffs. This language uses a huge amount of memory, which acts as a disadvantage, especially when you are developing an app with a preference for memory optimization.

3. Weak in Programming for Mobile Devices

Developers usually use Python for server-side programming, rather than using it for mobile applications or client-side programming. This is because Python has slow processing power and is hardly memory efficient when compared to other programming languages.

4. Difficult-to-interact Database Layer

It is significantly stress-free and easy to code a program using Python, but when it comes to interacting with the database, Python lags behind. It has an underdeveloped and primitive database layer in contrast to other more popular technologies such as ODBC and JDBC. Mostly, companies aim to have smooth interaction with complex data, which makes it difficult for them to use Python.

5. Prone to Cause Runtime Errors

Python’s dynamic feature allows it to change a variable’s data type at any time. A Python variable that once held an integer value, may hold a string value in the future. This may lead to runtime errors. Hence, developers must perform several rounds of testing for any application developed.

In this ‘Advantages and Disadvantages of Python’ blog, we tried to give you a little information about the trending Python programming language. Further, we discovered some of the major Python strengths and weaknesses. With Intellipaat’s Python training, we aim to make you proficient in this popular programming language, in which you will work on several module-related projects that will help you gain hands-on experience. In the end, you will be awarded an industry-recognized Python course completion certification.