Python Features

@author: Siva Velivelli

Python Features

1. Simple and easy to learn:  

● The statements in the Python program look like simple English words, and Python is a "high-level programming language." Higher-level means the syntax of Python is human-readable. It is easy to understand and can write error-free Python programs.

● The ease of access to open-source inbuilt libraries and an active, supportive community make Python more popular. The concise code of Python reduces the developmental time and costs for building Python projects.

The above Python code opens the python.txt file, reads the data, and prints the data to the console. 

2. Freeware and open source:

● Python can be freely downloaded directly from https://www.python.org/. It is developed under an OSI-approved open source license, making it freely usable and distributable, even for commercial use. 

● CPython is the default or standard implementation of Python written in C. The Python source code is open and we can customize it to fulfill the requirements. A few types of customized Python distributions are:  JPython (to run Java based applications), Iron Python (to run C#.net applications), Anaconda Python (to run data science and machine learning, and related applications), and Ruby Python (to run Ruby based applications).

 3. High-level programming language:

● Python is a high-level programming language that is easy to learn. The term "high-level" refers to the fact that Python's syntax is human-readable.

4. Platform independent:

● A language is said to be platform independent if the same code can run on virtually all operating systems without rewriting the code. Python is a cross-platform language because it can run on any platform (Windows, Linux, or MacOS) by using a Python virtual machine (PVM) tailored to that platform. Note: Python byte code is platform-independent. However, python virtual machine is specific to the target platform (e.g., Windows, MacOS). 

5. Portability:

● A language is said to be portable if its application can run on any existing platform (Windows, Linux, or MacOS) without requiring any code changes. Python is a highly portable language because code written on Windows will run on any Mac or Linux platform that has the Python interpreter installed. It is not necessary to rewrite the code for each platform.

6. Dynamically typed programming language:

● Python is a dynamically typed programming language. The type concept is applicable in Python, but we do not need to explicitly declare the type of a variable before run time. When we assign a value to a variable, the Python environment automatically assigns the data type to the variable during run time based on the provided value.

● For example, if you have to assign an integer value of 10 to a variable "number", you don’t need to write "int number = 10". All you have to do is write "number = 10".

 ● The types in Python are also not fixed. We can use the same variable for multiple data types (int, float, string, etc.) depending on the requirements. For example, if you assign an integer value of 25 to a variable "b", The type of "b" is the "int" type. Now, if you assign a float value of 30.5 to a variable "b", Immediately, the type of "b" changes to "float" type. Now, if you assign the string value "python" to a variable "b", the type of "b" changes to "string" type. The type will be changed automatically whenever we assign different types of value. This dynamic typing nature is referred to as a dynamically typed language, and it gives the programmer more flexibility.

● Note: In a static typed programming language, we must declare the type of a variable before run time or an error will occur. C, C++, or Java programming languages are examples. Additionally, types are fixed for the duration of the program and do not change.

7. Interpreted: 

● Python is also an interpreted programming language. Python's source code is executed line by line, rather than in its entirety. We are not required to compile the source code explicitly because the interpreter processes it at runtime. The Python interpreter is responsible for the compilation and execution of Python programs. Note: Python is a scripting language, which means it can be interpreted. All scripting languages are referred to as "programming languages" 

8. Extensible: 

● Python is an extensible, which means that we can extend its functionality of a Python application by integrating existing code/snippets/scripts from other languages (C, C++, Java, etc.). The main benefits are that development time can be cut, performance can be improved and additional security features can be added to the python program.

 9. Embeddable: 

● Other programming languages such as C, C++, and Java can be used to incorporate Python code into their programs. Embedding allows your application to implement some of its functionality in Python rather than C or C++, allowing you to reduce the amount of code you have to write.

 10. Both procedure oriented and object oriented:

● Python is a programming language that supports multiple paradigms. It has procedural (functional) and object-oriented (C++ and Java) features, and programs can be written using either.

 11. Extensive libraries:  

● Python supports a large set of built-in libraries. Python libraries are used to develop applications for machine learning and data science (SciKit Learn, SciPy, Numpy, Matplotlib, Pandas, etc.).

 12. Memory management and Garbage collection: 

● Python supports automatic memory management and garbage collection. We don't have to think about how to allocate or clear the memory after usage. When memory is no longer in use, the garbage collector automatically returns it to the system. Because of this, memory can be used to the fullest, making the application more durable.