Java vs Python: Which Should I Study?

Whether you’re looking to create some programs as a side gig, get into programming as a hobby, or yearn to start a new career in software development, learning to code can give you valuable skills. There are numerous languages to choose from, each with pros and cons. Let’s look at and compare Java vs Python, two tremendously popular and powerful programming languages, and see which is the best language for you to start studying.

Java Vs Python: Which Language Should I Study?

Of the two choices, which language is better for you to study: Java or Python? There is no quick answer to this question, so this article will delve into each language to showcase its strengths and provide some example code and practice programs. In the end, the answer may come down to criteria such as your personal preference, capabilities, career ambitions, and your intended use.

In the Java vs Python debate, which reasons are there to study each language? Your choice of language may depend on what you ultimately want to use it for. Consider how you want to use the language in your career, as each language has strong suits that may be better for certain uses. Once you have goals mapped out, you can begin comparing the pros and cons of Java vs Python to see which language best suits your goals.

Comparing Java vs Python

The following is a general overview of Java vs Python and each language’s key characteristics:

Java characteristics

• Java is a mature and trusted language that has widespread adoption, particularly among large enterprises.
• Java, being the official language of the Android software development kit (SDK), is a good choice for Android app development.
• Java has a steeper learning curve due to its more complex syntax.
• Java is a fast language due to the interpretation in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
• Java has a large community, which can lead to easier collaboration and learning.
• Java is among the most popular languages and is used by many large companies, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, among many others.

Python characteristics

• Python has a simpler syntax than many other languages, including Java, making it easier to write.
• The simplicity of Python code makes it more human-readable.
• Python scripts can be run easily in a terminal without a compilation step.
• There are numerous libraries and frameworks for fields such as machine learning and data science.
• Libraries such as Requests, Selenium, and Beautiful Soup make web scraping in Python easy.
• Many Python libraries are open-source, which attracts developers and helps build extensive communities.
• Python’s popularity has been increasing, surpassing Java in some lists.
• Python is used by companies and organizations such as YouTube, NASA, PayPal, and Goldman Sachs.

These different characteristics can be useful depending on your project. For example, if you are planning to develop Android apps, you may want to choose Java. It is possible to develop Android apps with libraries such as Kivy, but there are many libraries that are part of the Android SDK that are specifically made for Java.

Whether you choose to study Java vs Python may also depend on your career plans. Are you planning on becoming a software engineer at an enterprise that extensively uses Java programs? Many enterprises use Java, including large enterprises, for the stability and security Java provides.

You may want to study data analysis and plan on becoming a data engineer or data analyst. In that case, you may choose Python for its robust data science libraries, such as Matplotlib, Scikit-learn, and NumPy. Other libraries, such as PyTorch and TensorFlow, are useful if your studies include machine learning.

To better illustrate what each language can do and any limitations, you’ll need to take a closer look at the languages. Take a look at Python first, then Java. By the end of the article, you’ll have a much clearer idea about what each language offers and be able to choose between Java vs Python.

Why Do I Need To Learn Python?

Python was developed as an advanced scripting language meant to be easy and intuitive to use but also as powerful as competing languages. Some reasons for learning Python may include its ease of use, its popularity, and its simple syntax, among other reasons.

Python is a language that is:

• Multi-platform
• Multi-purpose
• Object-oriented
• High level
• Widely used
• Easy to learn
• Easy to install
• Easy to run

These characteristics contribute to the language’s current status as one of the most popular and in-demand programming languages. Python has a robust community that may help users who are having difficulties learning the language or running their apps. There are many tutorials available online to help you learn Python, so it is very easy for beginner programmers to get started with.

Another reason for Python’s success is its large amount of available libraries. These libraries make sophisticated operations, such as scraping websites for data sets, considerably easier and less time-consuming. You can also use the libraries to help you develop new programs. Python has many libraries for the data sciences, while Java has libraries for Android application development, for example.

Python benefits over Java

Python outperforms Java in several areas.

• Python has a simpler syntax.
• Python is easier to learn for beginners.
• Python syntax is concise.
• Python uses tabs and white space, while Java ignores them, leading to what many people may consider code that is easier to read.
• Python allows for fast prototyping, which means it lets you test new programs quickly.
• Python has a large list of libraries for machine learning and data science.
• Python is widely used for automating tasks with simple scripts.
• Python can be used for web development with frameworks such as Django and Flask.

Python programming for the absolute beginner

Programming in Python is easy to start for absolute beginners because it requires very few tools or software. To get started using Python, download and install the latest Python version. Although you can write Python programs in a basic text editor, it is recommended to use an integrated development environment (IDE) to write and run your code to more easily catch errors and debug your code. One such IDE is Visual Studio Code with the Python extension. You can run your program on your local machine or in a web browser.

Once you’ve got an IDE downloaded, installed, and running, you can write, debug, and run your Python programs. Since Python was designed to be simple, learning to write a basic Python program is relatively easy compared to other languages. See the example in the next section to get an idea of what a Python program looks like and how it works.  For further learning, there are many resources available to help you start programming in Python.

Python program example

The example code in this section is a Python web scraping script. This Python program is a simple web scraper that makes use of several libraries. The program uses the Requests library to send an HTTP request to a website. The library Beautiful Soup then parses the HTML returned from that request to a usable, readable format. Then, the program uses the OpenPyxl library to save the headlines to a spreadsheet on your local computer.

#Web scraper for Java vs Python comparison.

#Import libraries

import openpyxl

import requests

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

#Create a spreadsheet to put the headlines.

excel = openpyxl.Workbook()

sheet = excel.active

sheet.title = “Title”

#Send a request to the website with the Requests library.

response = requests.get(“https://lite.cnn.com”)

#Use BeautifulSoup to get the HTML content.

soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, “lxml”)

#Each headline on that site has the CSS ID ‘card–lite.’

headlines = soup.find_all(class_ = “card–lite”)

#Get the text from each headline.

for headline in headlines:

headline_text = headline.find(‘a’).get_text()

#Add each headline to the spreadsheet.

sheet.append([headline_text])

#Save the spreadsheet. Change this to the path of your spreadsheet.

print(“Scraping for a Java vs Python example finished”)

excel.save(‘c:/path/to/spreadsheet.xlsx’)

The program example above is a simple web scraper. As you learn more Python programming, you can start to do more complex projects like visualizing data sets using data science libraries or machine learning.

Why Should I Learn Java vs Python?

Java is a multi-platform object-oriented programming language created by Sun Microsystems. Software developers and businesses have used it to create games, websites, mobile apps, and other applications and services. Java is still one of the most popular language options today. You’ll want to learn Java if you want to work as a Java developer at a large enterprise or if you want to develop mobile games.

Java programs run differently than Python programs. When you create and run a Java application, your computer attempts to compile and interpret the code first. The Java Compiler initially translates Java code to byte code. The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) translates bytecode into a program that can be run on local hardware. Java applications can run on a wide range of systems and devices. You just need to have the JVM installed.

To get started programming in Java, you’ll need the Java Development Kit (JDK) and the JVM installed on your computer. You will also need an IDE like Visual Studio Code, Eclipse, or Intellij IDEA. You can use the same Visual Studio Code IDE that you used with Python, but you will need to install the Java extension. After installing the JDK, JVM, and Java extension pack, you can execute a program like a web scraper by pressing F5 or entering commands in the terminal. See the example program below to learn how to run programs in a terminal.

Advantages of Java over Python

Java outperforms Python in some areas.

• Java is a more preferred language for mobile app development.
• Java can run large programs faster than Python thanks to its just-in-time (JIT) bytecode compilation.
• Java can catch errors earlier than Python because of error handling at compilation rather than runtime.
• Java is often used to make scalable, enterprise-level applications and systems thanks to its application programming interfaces (API) and robust standard library.
• Thanks to its maturity, Java has a large community, which can be helpful for a larger support network, more documentation, and extensive libraries.
• Java allows for multi-threading, unlike Python, which is the running of multiple functions at the same time.
• Java is more compatible with the Android and iOS platforms compared to Python.
• Java is more used for game development than Python, which has limited game development functionality when it comes to large and complex games.

What is main function in Java?

Java programs have an entry point called the “main” function. This is the starting point in the program that can run code or call other functions to run.

This is how a main function looks:

//Include all of your imports here.

public static void main(String[] args) {

System.out.println(“Example for the Java vs Python comparison.”);

}

What is a swap function in Java?

A swap method is a Java method in the Collections utility class that swaps items in a list.

This is how it looks:

//Import the Collections and List utilities.

import java.util.Collections;

import java.util.List;

//Initialize the list.

List<String> myList = …;

//Use the Collection method to swap items in the list, if necessary.

Collections.swap(myList, index1, index2);

Java program example

The following program is an example web scraper application written in Java. The purpose of the application is to scrape the contents of a news website once, parse the HTML contents into readable text, and export the text to a CSV file. It uses the Java web scraping library Jsoup to do the heavy lifting and built-in system commands to save the text to a CSV file.

This example should show you the differences in Java vs Python syntax. You can see how the Java syntax differs from the Python example above, which performs a similar web scraping function.

//Web scraper example for Java vs Python comparison.

//Import the necessary libraries

import org.jsoup.Jsoup;

import org.jsoup.nodes.Document;

import org.jsoup.nodes.Element;

import org.jsoup.select.Elements;

import java.io.IOException;

import java.io.BufferedWriter;

import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

import java.nio.file.Paths;

import java.nio.file.Files;

public class Scraper {

public static void main(String[] args) {

//Change the path to the CSV file.

String csvPath = “c:/path/to/scrapedheadlines.csv”;

//Wrap the function in a ‘try and catch’ block

try {

// Connect to the website and fetch the HTML content.

Document document = Jsoup.connect(“https://lite.cnn.com”).get();

// Find all elements with class ID labeled ‘card–lite’, which are the headlines on the page.

Elements headlines = document.select(“.card–lite a”);

// Create a BufferedWriter to save the headlines to a CSV file.

BufferedWriter writer = Files.newBufferedWriter(Paths.get(csvPath), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);

// Loop through each headline and save the headlines to the CSV file.

for (Element headline : headlines) {

writer.append(headline.text());

// Go to the next line after each headline

writer.append(‘\n’);

}

// Close the BufferedWriter.

writer.flush();

writer.close();

// Print to the terminal when the scraping and saving are complete.

System.out.println(“Done scraping Java vs Python example”);

} catch (IOException e) {

//Print exceptions, if any.

e.printStackTrace();

}

}

}

Be sure to download the latest Jsoup .JAR file and place it in the same directory of your Java program. To run this program in a terminal, change the directory to the location of the file Scraper.java. Then, compile the Java class. On a Mac computer, replace the semicolon with a colon. Otherwise, on a Windows computer, use the semicolon in the following command:

javac -cp .;jsoup-1.16.2.jar scraper.java

Then, run the program with this command:

java -cp .;jsoup-1.16.2.jar scraper

Comparing the two programs in Java vs Python, you can see that the Python program is more concise, easier to read, and simpler. If readability and simplicity are important to you, then Python may be a better choice. You may also consider Python execution easier because you don’t need to run compilation commands.

Note that these are very simple example programs that do one simple task. Programs can get very complex, including web scraping programs. Longer and more complex programs also start to use more memory and take longer to run. If program speed is an important issue, then Java may be a better option.

Proxy For Java and Proxy for Python Examples

As shown in the program examples above, one of the ways you can make use of either language is to scrape the web. Scraping the web can be a quick, efficient, and easy way to gather and save large amounts of data from the internet for many different types of projects and use cases.

If you’re going to be scraping the web, you may eventually encounter a situation where you’re blocked from scraping a site. This can happen when you send too many requests in too short of a time or if the site blocks or bans your internet protocol (IP) address for bot activity. Luckily, there is a way to get around a website or several websites blocking your IP and banning you from the site.

A proxy server lets you use an IP address that’s different from your usual IP address when scraping the web. If the proxy IP address gets banned from a site, you will still be able to visit that site because you can simply use another proxy. Ideally, you’ll have rotating proxies that will make it very easy to retain access to any site and scrape its contents.

If you are using a scraping service, such as Scraping Robot, proxies are included, and you don’t have to worry about programming them into a Python or Java program. However, if you have hired a developer to write your program or if you are writing the web scraping program yourself, you’ll need to manually include the proxy information. This is done by adding a few lines of code that include your proxy IP address, port, username, and password.

Proxy usage in a Java program

The way to put proxies into your program differs slightly depending on whether you’re using Java vs Python. First, look at how to put a proxy into a Java web scraping program.

To use a proxy in your Java program, use the System commands to set your password, username, IP address, and port. Then, add an authentication section. Add these proxy lines before your Main class:

//Java proxy example for a Java vs Python comparison

/*

Include the hostname or numerical IP address below. Change YOUR_PROXY_HOST, YOUR_PROXY_PORT, YOUR_USERNAME, and YOUR_PASSWORD to the appropriate information.

*/

System.setProperty(“http.proxyHost”, “YOUR_PROXY_HOST”);

System.setProperty(“http.proxyPort”, “YOUR_PROXY_PORT”);

System.setProperty(“http.proxyUser”, “YOUR_USERNAME”);

System.setProperty(“http.proxyPassword”, “YOUR_PASSWORD”);

// For HTTPS:

System.setProperty(“https.proxyHost”, “YOUR_PROXY_HOST”);

System.setProperty(“https.proxyPort”, “YOUR_PROXY_PORT”);

System.setProperty(“https.proxyUser”, “YOUR_USERNAME”);

System.setProperty(“https.proxyPassword”, “YOUR_PASSWORD”);

Authenticator.setDefault(

new Authenticator() {

@Override

protected PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() {

if (getRequestorType() == RequestorType.PROXY) {

return new PasswordAuthentication(“YOUR_USERNAME”, “YOUR_PASSWORD”.toCharArray());

}

return null;

}

}

);

Proxy usage in a Python program

Adding a proxy to a Python web scraper is easy. At the start of your web scraping script, you can add a few lines that include a proxy.

#Proxy example for a Java vs Python comparison

import requests

proxies = {

#The addresses of your proxy

‘Http…,

‘https…,

}

session = requests.Session()

session.proxies.update(proxies)

#Change the URL below to the website you are scraping.

session.get(‘http://quote.stoscrape.com’)

Of the two languages, Java vs Python, the inclusion of proxies into the code is simpler in the Python example.

Final Thoughts on the Java vs Python Debate

Ultimately, choosing between Java vs Python depends on several factors, such as your current skill level and how you plan to use the language. Each language has its strengths and weaknesses. When choosing a language, also consider things that people who have worked in Python or Java say about their careers, advice they may have for beginners, and what they think about choosing Java vs Python.

When choosing between Java vs Python, there’s no wrong choice. Whichever language you settle on, you can be confident that you’ve chosen a popular language with an active community and plenty of online sources for help. Java has been one of the top languages in terms of demand and popularity. Python has also been climbing in popularity lists and even tops some popularity lists.

If you want to learn more about either language or to find more information about Java vs Python discussions, visit our extensive knowledge base. If you want to learn how to scrape the web or how we can help you get proxies for your web scraping programs, reach out to us, and we’ll happily help you decide which proxy is best for you.

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