A programming language can be defined as the set of rules used to send the instructions to the computer systems to speed up the input and output processes and to automate, collect, manage, calculate, analyze the processing of data and information accurately.

It not only enables computer language programmers to develop software programs, scripts, applications, and services but also enhances the powers of computers by creating innovations in information technologies.

The programming language helps the developer to create more intelligent technology and machines for task automation. There are thousands of programming languages in the digital technology industry with each programming language has its own set of grammatical rules and features.

Different programming languages are designed for different purposes. The biggest standoff of the technocrat fresher is to make a decision where to begin or which language one should master doing excel in their career.

Most of the time professional coders also face a situation to learn a new language for individuals to get desire placement worldwide. Sometimes for software development companies, there is a need to make a strategic decision about what programming language should be adopted when starting to build a new software system.

Whatever may be the reason, this article represents a list of the most popular programming languages across the world to know which languages are ruling the charts. This list of top programming languages is based on the data sourced from the TIOBE Programming Community Index, which is a popular indicator of the popularity of programming languages.

1. Java

Java is an object-oriented, platform-independent and secured high-level programming language that includes the combination features of C and C++ with some essential additional concepts.

For the past several years it has secured the first and second positions among the different programming languages according to TIOBE. Java was initially developed by James Gosling initially developed Java in Sun Microsystems (which was later merged with Oracle Corporation).

It is well suited for the development of standalone, web, enterprise, desktop–based GUI, cloud computing services, game engines and by using features like JSP, Applets, AWT and Swing, J2EE, Javabeans JDBC, and Java servlets, etc. The usefulness of Java includes the following

❖ Support for Multithreading

❖ Automatic Memory Management

❖ Stability and massive community

❖ Remote Method Invocation(RMI)

❖ Low–security risk

❖ Good for enterprise computing

❖ Simple, portable, Robust

❖ Multithreaded and distributed

However, it has the following disadvantages

❖ Does not support unsigned data type

❖ Not fastest so more execution time

❖ More memory consumption

❖ More hardware cost

Career Opportunity: Web developer, Application developer, EJB programmer, Software Developer, Tester, Graphics designer, etc.

2.C Language

C is a general-purpose procedure-oriented programming language and is used for writing programs in a wide range of domains, such as operating systems, numerical computing, graphical applications, etc..

It provides “high-level” structured-programming constructs such as statement grouping, decision making, and looping, as well as “low-level” capabilities such as the ability to manipulate bytes and addresses which makes it so much popular till today though it is developed by Dennis M. Ritchie at Bell Laboratories in early 1970.

Advantages:

❖ C language is efficient, fast and easy to understand.

❖ It is a highly portable language.

❖ It has a number of built-in standard functions.

❖ Extendibility

❖ The programming task becomes simple.

❖ C language is a structured programming language.

❖ The modular structure makes program debugging, testing and maintenance are easier.

Disadvantage:

❖ C does not support OOP concept

❖ No runtime checking in C language.

❖ There is no strict type checking.

❖ It doesn’t have the concept of the namespace.

Career Opportunity: S/W developer, Embedded software engineer, graphics designer

3.Python

Python is an easy-to-learn powerful objected oriented and widely used high–level programming language that was initially created by Guido Van Rossum in 1991 and further developed by the Python software foundation. It has the capability of developing a virtual reality–based app, artificial intelligence and machine learning–based applications, web applications, game development, database applications, rapid prototype, GUI programs etc. by using its different features such as NumPy, Pandas, Django, MySQL interfaces. The main pulses of Python include the following:

❖ Easy to use an object–oriented language

❖ An expressive and interpreted language

❖ Cross-platform language

❖ Free and open source

❖ Cross-platform language

❖ Various usage and application

However, Python is not a perfect language due to the following attributes:

❖ It is not the fastest language

❖ Lesser libraries than C, Java, Perl

❖ Not strong on Type-binding

❖ Not easily convertible

❖ Limited Database Access

Career opportunity: Python developer, Product manager, Data analyst or journalist, Financial advisor

4. C++

C++ is one of the influential object-oriented, general-purpose programming languages developed by Bjarne Stroustrup with important, generic programming features.

It allows developers to create an augmented reality, virtual reality concept without writing code.C++ enables the developer to develop different applications such as operating system, games, web browsers, compiler, banking software, and DBMS software, etc.

Advantages:

❖ Support rich function library and multi-paradigm

❖ Low-level Manipulation

❖ EfficientMemory Management

❖ Scalability

❖ Large Community Support

❖ Support Cross-Platform

❖ Faster speed of execution

Disadvantage:

❖ Low–level security

❖ Unavailability Garbage Collector and Built-in Thread

❖ Use of Pointers

Career Opportunity: Operating Systems and Compilers developer, Database engines developers, Game programmer, embedded systems designers

5.C#

C#, pronounced as “C Sharp”, is an elegant, general-purpose, modern and object-oriented programming language which was developed by Microsoft led by Anders Hejlsberg and his team within the .Net initiative and was approved by the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) and International Standards Organization (ISO).

It is a lot similar to Java syntactically and is easy to use for C, C++ or Java users. It is a type-safe object-oriented language enabling developers to build a variety of secure and robust applications that run on the .NET Framework.

Many types of applications such as Windows client applications, XML Web services, distributed components, client-server applications, database applications can be easily created by using C#.

Advantages:

❖ Object-oriented

❖ Cross-Platform

❖ Automatic Garbage Collection

❖ Easy-to-Development

❖ Better Integration

❖ Cost-benefit

❖ Programming support

❖ Properties and Indexers

❖ Familiar syntax

❖ Most useful and powerful

Disadvantages

❖ This is not a flexible language as it is completely based on Microsoft .Net framework

❖ If we change anything in C# written code then we have to compile first.

❖ C# runs slowly

Career opportunity: Game Developer, Application Engineer

6. Javascript

Javascript is a lightweight, object-based, interpreted and dynamic computer programming language which is most commonly used as a part of web pages, whose implementations allow client-side script to interact with the user and make dynamic pages.

It supports the development of different web applications, games, mobile applications, smartwatch applications and flying robots, digital arts, and websites, etc.

Advantages:

❖ Easy to learn and simple

❖ Client-Side Scripting Language

❖ Only Interpretation, no compilation is needed

❖ Easy to debug and testing

❖ Cross-platform

❖ Speed is fast

❖ Rich Interface and versatility

❖ Increased interactivity

Disadvantages:

❖ Visible code

❖ Client-side security

❖ Does not have multithreading or multiprocessor capabilities

❖ Not Supported by all Web Browser

❖ Single Inheritance

Career Opportunities: Front-end developer, web application developer, UX /UI designer, web designer, full–stack developer

7. PHP

• PHP is the most widely used general-purpose programming language that can be easily embedded in HTML files and HTML codes to develop web-based apps and website creation today.

It is also called as Hypertext pre-processors created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. It has the capability to enables developers to create an interactive dynamic web page that effectively works with the database.

It can be used for the development of web applications, CMS, eCommerce, Image Processing and Graphics Design, Data Representation System. Popular websites like Facebook, Yahoo, Wikipedia, etc, and Studytonight, are developed using PHP.

Advantages:

❖ Open Source language and platform-independent

❖ Large community support

❖ Offers numerous automation tools

❖ Supports object-oriented and functional programming

❖ Easy to learn and execute

❖ Easy to maintain and stable

❖ Powerful library support

❖ Built-in database connection modules

Disadvantages:

❖ It does not fully secure because it is an open-source language

❖ It is not suitable for large application

❖ Poor Error handling

❖ It does not support large no of the app.

Career Opportunity: Web developer, app developer

8.Swift

Swift is a new programming language for iOS, OS X, watchOS, and tv OS apps that build on the best of C and Objective-C.

It is fast, safe, modern, and enables a level of interactivity in development by using the features such as closures, generics, and type inference that make it much easier to use, simplifying common patterns used in Objective-C.

The initial objective of this language was helping developers to build mobile apps that run on Apple devices and now it has been extended to develop desktop MAC OS applications.

Advantages:

❖ Easy Maintenance

❖ Readable and open source

❖ Safer platform

❖ Less code and fewer legacies

❖ High speed, so cost saving

❖ Supports dynamic libraries and interactive coding

❖ Implicit memory management

Disadvantages:

❖ Not 100% stable

❖ Less capable to handle errors

❖ Does not support earlier iOS versions

❖ Lack of third party support of tools and IDE

❖ The talent pool is limited

Career Opportunity: IOSdeveloper, infrastructure engineer, IOS Mobile developer etc.

9.GoLang

GoLang is an open-source, compiled, statically typed procedural programming language, developed in 2007 by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson at Google but launched in 2009 as an open-source programming language.

Golang e was created to reduce the lack of pace and difficulties involved with programming for large and scalable servers and software systems support environment adopting patterns alike to dynamic languages.

Programs are assembled by using packages, for efficient management of dependencies. Many numbers of popular products such as Kubernetes, dropbox, rocker box, infobox have been developed using GoLang.

Advantages:

❖ Simple and open-source

❖ Easy to write concurrent programs

❖ Fast execution speed

❖ Static linking

❖ Go tooling helps the developer to develop better code

❖ Has garbage collector

❖ It is cross-platform

❖ Keeps the bugs away

Disadvantages

❖ Less flexibility, than dynamically typed languages

❖ No 3-rd party modules

❖ Many differences from C-based languages

❖ No generics

Career Opportunity: Remote GoLang developer, Software engineer, Full stack developer, Mobile handset device checker

10.R language

• R is an open-source, programming language developed by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman in 1993 that possesses an extensive catalog of statistical and graphical methods with the provision of the machine learning algorithm, linear regression, time series, statistical inference, and data analysis, etc.

It facilitates statically computing and graphical libraries. R is a favorite language for data miners and statisticians for developing advanced statistical software and data analysis. It is not only confined by academics but many large companies, including Uber, Google, Airbnb, Facebook, etc.

Also, use the R programming language for visualization and statistical analysis. Data Analysis. The R programmers are capable to use it for data representations, statistical analysis, finance, banking application, and scientific data analysis

Advantages:

❖ Open-source

❖ Exemplary support for data wrangling

❖ Array of packages

❖ Good quality plotting and graphing

❖ More compatible and platform–independent

❖ Good-looking reports

❖ Machine learning operation

Career Opportunity: Data Scientist, Business Analyst, Data Analyst, Data Visualization Expert, Quantitative Analyst

The article explains briefly about the pros and cons of the top 10 programming languages along with their future scope in career and job prospective, which could provide the direction for the future software profession aspirants in selecting a particular language to learn for their career benefits.

The TIOBE Programming Community index is an indicator of the popularity of programming languages that represents the ratings of different languages based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third–party vendors. Popular search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube, and Baidu are used to for calculation of ratings. A graph has been shown to represent the latest ratings of the mentioned languages for 2020.

The graph shows that Java is in high demand followed by other languages. However, there are more promising and demanding programming languages available in the market and the selection of any language to choose as a career depends on the individual interest and requirement and TIOBE index is not calculated to represent the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written.

10 Best Programming Languages to Learn in 2020 for Job and Future

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