With the IT industry evolving at the rapid rate that it is, it’s no surprise that so many people are looking to get into programming. Everyone needs a website and everyone wants an app, but only those versed in the appropriate language can build them for you. The question is: which ones do you pick?
Stack Overflow, a question and answer site geared towards programmers, holds an annual developer survey where they get answers from over 100,000 developers to track the most popular languages.
Here is a list of the most popular programming languages for 2018 based on their survey findings. To see the original Stack Overflow report, click here.
10. C++
C++ is an offshoot of the C programming language. It is notoriously hard to
learn, but it’s used in just about everything from game development to server infrastructure and even operating systems. It gives its user greater control over hardware. If you’ve ever used either an Apple Macintosh or a PC running Windows, you’ve indirectly used C++ because the primary user interfaces of these systems are written in C++.
9. PHP
Hypertext Preprocessor, or PHP, is a server-side scripting language and a popular choice for web developers because it helps you create simple websites quickly and effortlessly. It’s even been described as “pleasingly zippy in its execution”. Almost 80% of all websites make use of PHP in some capacity. Companies like Facebook, Google, and WordPress use it for their websites. As far as programming languages go, PHP is very forgiving and is considered a good language for beginners.
8. C#
Both C# and C++ are object-oriented languages (OOL), which basically just means that the language is focused on objects instead of actions, worrying more about the objects you want to manipulate rather than the logic required to manipulate them. The codes of both C# and C++ are very similar, but you’re more likely to use C# in web and desktop applications than anything else.
7. Python
Python is a favourite of many developers for its easy to read code. It is a high-level programming language that can be used for web development, software development, mathematics and system scripting. A lot of developers consider it to be the easiest language to learn because it’s very easy to read.
6. Shell
Shell technically isn’t a programming language. It’s a scripting language that makes an operating system run commands, so it’s a command-line interpreter. Even though it’s not really a programming language, it’s still a very useful skill to have. It allows you to program commands in chains and have the system execute them as a scripted event, in a batch basically. In essence, probably the biggest advantage of using shell scripting is the banishment of tedious file management tasks.
5. Java
Java is the most common way to build Android apps today. It is a general-purpose computer programming language that lets programmers write computer instructions as English commands, instead of having to write in numeric codes. The main idea behind the language is “write once, run anywhere”, which basically means that compiled Java code can run on all platforms that support Java without the need for recompilation. Similar to C++, Java is an object-oriented language but simplified.
4. SQL
Pronounced “sequel”, SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It is a data-oriented language because it is mainly used to communicate with an existing database. It’s used to update data, retrieve data, or otherwise manipulate data on a database. According to ANSI (American National Standards Institute), it is the standard language for relational database management systems, but even though it is the standard, there are different versions of the SQL language. Despite some differences, all versions support the same major commands like SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT, WHERE.
3. CSS
Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML. That means that it describes the style of an HTML document and how HTML elements should be displayed. This applies to things like layout, colours, and fonts. It essentially controls how content will be displayed on a web page and because of that it is considered a cornerstone of the world wide web alongside HTML and JavaScript. It’s important to note that CSS and HTML go hand in hand.
2. HTML
HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the standard markup language used to create web pages and web applications. The markup tells the web browser how to display a web page’s words and images. HTML is also not considered a “programming language”, because it is a markup language. It’s still an essential part of web development alongside CSS and Javascript though. It’s the easiest and most basic language to learn for web technologies.
1. JavaScript
JavaScript is a multi-paradigm language that lets you make interactive web pages. Most websites use it and all major web browsers have a dedicated JavaScript engine to execute it. It is the programming language of HTML, easy to learn, and one of the fundamentals of web development. Next to CSS and HTML, it’s one of the three must learn languages for web developers. It’s also important to remember that JavaScript and Java are completely different languages, both in concept and design.
By Daniëlle Kruger
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