In this post we are going to discuss top 10 differences between Python and Go programming language.
As python is interpreted language, The python code has to be converted into a machine-readable form, by a program called interpreter, just before the time of execution. This makes python code platform independent and more flexible. Go is a compiled language, which means it needs to be build manually by a program called compiler, before execution. A language that is compiled tend to be faster than interpreted language. This is because the process of translating code well before run time reduces the overhead.
Let us discuss top 10 differences between Python and Go Programming languages.
- Syntax: Python has a more expressive and readable syntax compared to Go, which is known for its minimalist and straightforward syntax.
- Dynamic vs Static Typing: Python is dynamically typed, while Go is statically typed. This means that in Python, variable types can change during runtime, while in Go, variable types must be explicitly declared and can’t be changed.
- Performance: Go is known for its high performance and low latency, thanks to its statically typed nature, garbage collection, and efficient use of memory. Python is more versatile but slower due to its dynamically typed nature and the need for runtime evaluation.
- Standard Library: Python has a vast standard library that includes modules for various tasks, including file I/O, regular expressions, web development, scientific computing, and more. Go’s standard library is smaller but still provides a lot of functionality, including concurrency, networking, and file I/O.
- Concurrency: Both Python and Go provide support for concurrency, but Go’s built-in concurrency features, such as Go routines and Channels, make it easier to write concurrent programs.
- Object-Oriented Programming: Python is a fully object-oriented programming language, while Go provides only basic object-oriented features and is more focused on procedural programming.
- Null/Nil Values: In Python, None is used to represent null or nil values, while in Go, nil is used.
- Error Handling: Python uses exceptions to handle errors, while Go uses the return values and the built-in error type to handle errors.
- Package Management: Python uses pip to manage packages, while Go uses go get to retrieve and install packages.
- Community and Ecosystem: Python has a large, active, and diverse community of users, as well as a vast ecosystem of libraries, tools, and frameworks. Go has a smaller but growing community, with a focus on web development, networking, and cloud computing.
Below are some more points worth noting…
Python has no memory management however Golang has good memory management. Python offers no memory management to be configured by the programmer. Python manages the memory automatically. However, Golang, offers a considerable amount of, control of the memory management, to the programmer.
Python lacks in-built concurrency, but Golang provides in-built concurrency. Python has no in-built concurrency, but Golang has in-built concurrency. Concurrency feature of a programming language allows multiple processes to be executed simultaneously, during a period of time.
Python is dynamically typed language while Golang is statically typed language. Python is dynamically-typed, meaning that it checks for bugs in the code at run-time. Due to dynamic typing, in Python the same variable can have a different type at different times during the execution.
Python is slower but Golang is Faster comparatively. Python is slower compared to golang, as python is an interpreted language. The python code has to be converted into a machine-readable form before execution, just before the time of execution, hence it takes a little longer to execute. Golang is a statically typed language, which means no need to check variable types dynamically while executing. Therefore golang runs faster as compared to python.