Many articles on Google say that Python is one of the most popular programming languages. And it is. For example, Stack Overflow statistics show that 2/3 of developers who currently use this language like to work with it in the future and are not going to stop coding in it.
History and characteristics
Have you ever wondered why Python has such a name? Spoiler – it has nothing to do with a snake, unexpected, right? Actually, the story goes like this: Guido van Rossum (the founder of Python) started to realize the language, he read a published script of a 70’s BBC comedy series called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” . As you must have guessed by now, it was from this show that he got the inspiration for the name. Now this language is in the top of the top programming languages. To be more precise, it ranks third, behind only JavaScript and HTML/CSS, among the most popular technologies in the Stack Overflow survey . However, it wasn’t always so popular. The history of Python begins in the late 80s with the ABC programming language. It was created in Amsterdam at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica so that people with no experience could quickly start programming. Unfortunately, it didn’t work properly.
The Python programming language is an open-source, high-level, general-purpose object-oriented programming language. This definition can be heavy for beginners, so let’s look at each characteristic separately to see what it means:
Open source: it’s free and available for further improvements, such as adding useful features or fixing bugs.
Object-oriented: based not on functions but on objects with defined attributes and methods.
High-level: human-friendly rather than computer-friendly
General purpose: can be used to create any program.
It is used in any software you can think of. You can use it to create websites, artificial intelligence, servers, business software, and more. The language is used in data science, data analysis, machine learning, data engineering, web development, software development, and more.
What Python is needed for and where it is used
“What can you do in python”, “where is python used”, “where is python programming language used”, are the quotes of the most frequent questions that can be found on different forums from beginners. Below we answer in detail what python is used for.
To analyze data
Data has become a valuable asset in any modern industry and most companies are interested in collecting, processing and analyzing relevant data to extract valuable business insights from it. And this is where Python goes beyond any competition.
This language is particularly valuable because, in addition to its extensive standard library, it provides a huge set of add-on modules designed specifically for analytical purposes.
The best known Python libraries for performing data analysis are pandas and NumPy . These tools allow you to do almost anything with your data, such as cleaning and analyzing it, exploring statistics or visualizing hidden trends in your data.
For data visualization
Data visualization is a separate part of data analysis that helps us present information, raw or cleaned and transformed, in a more attractive and meaningful way.
For machine learning
Machine learning (ML) is at the heart of most data science tasks. It is a field of artificial intelligence concerned with using algorithms that allow machines to learn patterns and trends from historical data to make predictions from unknown data.
For software development
In addition to its multifaceted applications in the fields of data science, this language is used in every stage of software development, including build control, automatic continuous compilation, prototyping, bug tracking, testing, and software maintenance.
We can use it to create audio or video programs based on artificial intelligence or machine learning techniques, APIs (application programming interfaces), GUIs (graphical user interfaces), or any other type of software.
For web development
While we will mostly use languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript to create the visual part of a website, for its invisible part we often choose Python.