Top 7 Most Popular Programming Languages (Most Used High Level List)

List of the Most Popular Top 7 Best Programming Languages which are in high demand:

“Necessity is the mother of invention” – this saying has been the essence of human life evolution and thereby has resulted in the continuous struggle of the human race to be more comfort-prone.

The world is becoming smarter day by day with the rapid development of Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Less manual intervention, etc. This, in turn, is the result of continuous and tremendous efforts with the outcome of several technological advents and their intervention in the day-day activities.

As technology develops, the increase in the familiarity level of the programming languages also goes up drastically.

Best Ever Programming Languages

The list of programming languages that are in demand keeps changing depending on their usage, the number of performers/developers in that field, and the continuous changes in that field.

However, the list of Top Programming Languages varies based on certain features:

a) Practical usage of languages in developing more user-friendly features/gadgets/applications.

b) The range and extent of their comfort levels in learning (say a new graduate or an experienced).

Even though some languages remain at the top of the programming languages list, some were not able to maintain their position.

However, a suggestion from an experienced developer/programmer or even a novice is perfect in whatever you are and how you try to adapt to the new trends and technologies which would be the stepping stones for your success as an individual.

Let’s explore some of the top programming languages along with their features.

Top Most Popular Programming Languages

Enlisted below are the best and most used object-oriented and functional Programming Languages that you need to know.

Let’s Explore!!

#1) Java

Java continues to rock the top position in the charts of “Programming Languages”. Recently Java has completed its 22nd year since its advent in 1995 by James Gosling the recent being Java11 on September 25, 2018.

The long run has been made possible by its features of platform independence, scalability, security, etc. Java derives its features of object-orientation, Variables, Data types of C/C++, and in fact, the syntax that is influenced by C++.

Java’s popularity is mainly due to its platform-independence feature which makes it run on different types of computers, either Macintosh or Windows Unix or Linux, or even Mainframe/mobile phones as long as it has JVM installed in it.

Java code that was written 15 years ago can be made to run even on the latest JVM. One more notable feature is that it is fundamentally object-oriented and this makes Java robust as Java objects contain no references to external data.

Suggested Read => Simple Guide to Learn Java Quickly

With speed, native code translating, and memory management features, it continues to stay on top of the list with its newly ad-vented features.

The Class Library and Java API, which are a part of the Java Language, are the main learning of the Language. Even though Java consists of 50 Keywords, Java API has thousands of classes with tens of thousands of methods used in Programs.

Java is the learning language that is worth learning and it is the most preferred language to be learned by developers.

Building server-based applications, web applications, Android apps, Scientific applications, connecting to a Database, Internet of Things, Cloud development, etc., are a few to-do lists of things that you could do after learning this excellent language.

Open JDK, which is a free, open-source implementation, makes it platform-independent across OS Environments.

Java is most commonly used in our daily life i.e. on most popular websites like Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, Amazon, and eBay. Few other well-known/booming technologies like Android, Kotlin, etc., are dependent on Java.

=> Download Java here

#2) Python

Python is an interpreted high-level programming language for general programming purposes. It was released in 1991.

Python has been designed to give importance to code readability and significantly use whitespaces. Dynamic type, automatic memory management, supporting multiple programming paradigms (PO, Functional, procedural), a large comprehensive library of its own, etc., are notable features.

Python interpreters are available for many operating systems and it is open-source software. As of January 2018, it is the fourth most popular language (after Java, c, c++). A recent study analyzed that such scripting languages are more productive than conventional languages.

Further reading =>> Programming vs Scripting languages – A Comparison

Python can be embedded in many software products, used in several Artificial Intelligence projects & the Information security industry, and can also serve as a scripting language for web applications.

Large organizations that use Python include Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, etc. Libre office includes python and intends to replace Java with Python. Go, Kotlin, Swift, etc, have derived some of their features from python.

With the growing trend of the Hadoop ecosystem that is dependent on Python, Java, and Scala, Python provides an efficient competition to Java (as the world of analytics does not have many Java programmers),

Also, read Through our Free Python Tutorials for excellent knowledge of the language.

=> Download Python here

#3) Swift

Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled programming that was developed by Apple Inc. for iOS, macOS, and for working with Cocoa frameworks. It uses the Objective C runtime library which allows C, and C++ to run within one program.

Swift offers core concepts like dynamic dispatch, late binding, extensible programming, and address errors like null pointer de-referencing, supporting the protocol, extensibility, struts, classes, etc. Swift won first place for being the most Loved Programming language in 2015-2016.

Objective c which is a superset of C is used for creating OS and iOS applications.

Swift has entered as” Objective C without C”. The features of readability, maintenance, a safer platform, less code, less legacy, speed, supporting dynamic libraries, interactive coding, open-source, etc., make it an efficient choice for developing mobile projects.

=> Swift Language details

#4) Kotlin

Kotlin is a statically typed programming language that runs on JVM and can also be compiled into JS Source. It is fully supported by Google for Android OS.

One of the prominent goals of Kotlin is to compile as quickly as Java. Sharing code between JVM and JavaScript platforms was the main feature of the recent release of Kotlin.

Kotlin is designed to be an OO language, that is fully interoperable with Java code. It also supports procedural programming with the use of its functions. Null pointer safety, extension functions, infix notation, full Java compatibility, and Good IDE support are some of the features that speed up the development process.

Kotlin library helps to build android UI applications. It has an interactive shell and can be used as an effective scripting language. Kotlin was officially announced as an Android development language by Google. It is the third language that is fully supported for Android in addition to Java and C++.

=> Learn more about Kotlin here

#5) C

C language is the oldest and most popular programming language. C is a general-purpose, imperative, computer programming language that supports structured programming. It was developed by Dennis Ritchie between 1969 and 1973.

It is designed to be compiled using a compiler, provides low-level memory access, offers efficient mapping to machine instructions, and requires minimal run-time support. The portability and capability of use in any embedded system are some of its outstanding features.

A portable assembly language that perfectly fits the operating systems along with a small run-time makes it a Universal Language.

#6) C++

C with Classes, the predecessor of C, C+++ was created by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1979. C++ is a general-purpose programming language. It has imperative, object-oriented, and generic programming features.

Its design highlights include system programming, flexibility of use, embedded resource-constrained, and performance efficiency with large systems.

C++ is a compiled language, that has its implementation available on many platforms. The other versions of programming languages like Java, C#, D, etc., have been influenced by C++.

C with Classes added features to the C compiler, including classes, derived classes, strong typing, inlining, and default arguments. It was renamed C++ by adding functions like virtual functions, operator-overloading, references, constants, type-safe, memory-allocation, improved type-checking, and a stand-alone compiler.

Its main components include direct mapping of hardware features and zero-overhead abstractions based on those mappings. Though C++ is considered a superset of C, it is strictly not true.

#7) JavaScript

JavaScript is a dynamic, weakly typed, Prototype-based, high-level, interpreted programming language. It takes the position of one of the core technologies of the world wide web. It enables the creation of interactive web pages.

Initially, only client-side web browsers were implemented in JavaScript, but it is now embedded in various host software including server-side web servers and also in run-time environments that make it function on mobile, and desktop applications.

Even though it carries a similarity in its name with Java Language, it is distinct from Java by its dynamic functionality, human-readable code, etc.

The supporting technologies or languages that are related to JavaScript are JSON (Data Interchange Format), jQuery (Client-side HTML Scripting), Angular, and Angular (Web Application Frameworks for developing SPA), React (JS Library), asm.js, etc.

Standardization of web Assembly by W3C made programming Languages such as C, C++, and Java as well as JS to author client-side code for the world wide web. However, JavaScript has now risen to biblical levels and experts say that it’s time to go down…and yes….partially correct too.

As the preferred language for client-side development varies along with the web assembly back ends, JavaScript is at times confusing to use owing to the availability of several web options.

Conclusion

The choice or preference of selecting a programming language varies from person to person depending on the requirements to be satisfied, the extent of availability of supported features/platforms, Individual capacity to learn, and his/her interests.

Most importantly the average salary earned by implementing a specific programming language in his/her career domain will play a drastic role in choosing the right programming language.

About the Author:

This article is written by Jalaja, SCJP, SCWCD certified Online Trainer, and Blogger.

She started as a Jr.Lecturer, Switched on to a Developer role, Software Engineer, and then to Web Technologies Consultant. Her passion for writing made her create her blog. She is also actively involved in Volunteer activities like teaching in Government Schools, Maintenance of the Volunteer Organization’s Facebook Page, and is also Testing their Mobile app.