Features of Python
Python is a powerful, easy to learn, popular programming language. It has effective data structures and its elegant syntax makes it user-friendly language.
Below are the key features of Python:
1. Python is Easy
When we say Python is ‘easy,' we mean it in a different perspective. Those Perspectives are-
a) Easy to code
Coding in Python is effortless as compared to other programming languages like Java and C++.
It does not take too much time to learn Python syntax; anyone can learn it in just a few hours or days; thus, it is a programmer-friendly language.
A user with the non-coding background can also quickly learn this language if they have good logical skill.
b) Easy to read
Being a high-level programming language, Python code is quite similar like English. There is no use of curly braces, it is used indentation to define the block of code, and its code is easy to read.
2. High-level Language
Python is a high-level language. It focuses more on the programming logic rather than the essential hardware components such as memory addressing and registers utilization.
Its code runs freely and does not require knowledge about the system architecture. We also do not need to manage the memory.
3. Interpreted
Programming languages like C or C++, there are two steps for execution of code that we must first compile it, and then run it, whereas, in Python, there is no need to compile it. Internally, its source code is converted into an immediate form called byte code.
Python is an interpreted language; its means that Python code is executed line by line and all code at once. That's why; it is easier to debug your code. The interpreter makes it a little bit slower than JAVA, but that does not matter because it provides benefit as compared to other languages.
Python is tending to be more flexible than the compiled languages. It provides automatic memory management.
4. Object-Oriented
Python supports object-oriented programming approach and concepts of objects, classes, encapsulation, inheritance, etc. It focuses on objects and combines data and functions. In OOPs, real-world entities are represented through an object, and classes are the blueprint of the object.
It also supports procedural-oriented language. Procedural language programming revolves around functions and makes code reusable.
Object-oriented programming is the most natural and useful approach. OOPs concepts allow break down your software into a smaller problem that you can solve - one object at a time.
The OOPs allow reusing of code using inheritance where child class can inherit all the properties of base (Parent) class. We will learn about these concepts later.
5. Dynamically Typed
Python is the dynamically typed language; it means data type does not assign while declaring variables.The kind of value is decided at run time, not in advance.
When we declare a variable with some value, that value will get stored at memory location and binds that variable to memory container. For example, we can write x="Hello world" assign to string value to a string variable.
The benefit of using dynamic memory allocation is avoiding the wastage of memory. When we use static memory allocation, a lot of memory is wasted because all memory allocation cannot be utilized.
6. Large standard Library
When you install Python, It downloaded with a vast library that you can use, so you don't have to write to everything in your code.
There is a library for regular expressions, threading, databases, image-manipulation, unit-testing web browsers, CGI, and a lot of functionality.
Python library is a collection of methods and function. It allows you to perform many tasks without writing code.
7. Extensible
Python is extensible, its means you can write your Python code in other languages such as Java, C, C++. This makes a Python an extensible language.
It's not extending the language itself (syntax, constructs, etc.), but it does let you interface Python with libraries written in other languages. (mainly C or C++, but using C as a bridge you can call other languages as well that provide C interfaces.)
8. Portable
Python is portable, or we can say, platform-independent. Python code can execute in various platform like Mac, Linux, Windows, etc. Suppose you wrote your code in Windows machine. Now, if you want to run it on a Linux, you don't need to changes to it. There is no need to write different code for different platform.
9. Free and Open Source
Python is freely available on its official website (www.python.org). Anyone can download and install it. You can also download an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Python such as Pycharm, Jupiter, Visual studio, etc.
Python is also an open-source language; its means that the source code of Python is freely available without any restriction. Anyone can download it, use it, and create to new module or functions and distribute to Python community.
10. GUI Programming
GUI is an acronyms of "Graphical User Interface." We can develop a basic desktop-based application by using Python Tkinter or PyQt.
11. Expressive
Python is an expressive language. Its means that single line of Python code can be more expressive than other programming languages.
The key feature of a more expressive language is that-the fewer line of code you write, faster you can complete the project. It is easier to debug and maintains the code.