The Tiobe Index is one of the rankings of the most popular programming languages. It is important to note that “the TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written” as they put it. The ranking relies on many sources, including search engines like Google and Bing, Wikipedia, and so on.
However, it does reflect extreme popularity of the 2 probably most popular scripting languages (Python and JavaScript), the indispensable SQL for Database querying, and the robust, tried and tested compiled languages of the so-called C-family languages (C, C++, C# and Java).
According to the index the following 7 are the most popular programming languages:
1. Python
No discussion of the most popular programming languages misses out to mention Python. It is one of the most user-friendly programming languages for beginners, which many people believe is also the most popular one as it helps many people try themselves in programming or scripting.
It is also a great choice for learning programming because it has advanced capabilities like OOP (Object-oriented programming), a big number of code libraries available (so that you can use them instead of writing your own scripts for some tasks that were already solved by someone else in the library) and it forces you to write readable code, and if you don’t follow the indentation syntax rules intended to make it readable then the code will not run at all.
That doesn’t mean that only beginners use Python, quite contrary to that! Python is also widely used by professionals for Artificial Intelligence (libraries: PyTorch, TensorFlow), Data Analysis (libraries: NumPy, Pandas), Web Development (libraries: Django, Flask) and Automation.
2. C++
C++ is a powerful programming language which is used to write programs that need to be very fast. It is one of the first choices when performance is critical and the efficiency of compute resource usage is of great importance. It belongs to the C-family of programming languages. On top of its similarity with C, it also has support for object-oriented programming (OOP). It can be used for systems programming and writing some of the most basic software which we call system utilities.
However, it is not only used for basic software, as it is a popular choice for game development (by means of the so-called Unreal engine). This power and efficiency is great for those experience experts who are C++ gurus, but it is not an easy language to learn compared to many other programming languages. Even experienced programmers can make mistakes with it when using memory pointers feature of the language, since it requires manual management of memory and can result in serious security issues. Its syntax can be considered much more complex than syntax of some other languages. This all shows that learning C++ can be much harder than Python for new programmers.
3. Java
Java is often concisely described as a programming language for highly scalable, big, enterprise applications which you write once and run anywhere due to it being platform independent. It means that once the java code is written, the same application code should work anywhere where Java apps can be run, irrespective of the platform/operating system. In order to run Java apps the operating system (e.g. Windows, Linux, MacOS) needs to have Java platform installed (JRE – Java runtime environment). Contrary to how many compiled languages translate programming code into 1s and 0s that the computer CPU can execute directly, with Java the code is translated (compiled) into an intermediary code called Java bytecode which then can be executed anywhere where java JRE is installed.
Java is a robust and popular language also in other domains (not only enterprise back-end apps) like Web Development (for which Spring framework is popular) or the development of applications for Android smartphones. Java doesn’t allow direct memory manipulation with pointers (like C and C++) which makes it safer for preventing memory-safety vulnerabilities in applications. This security issue is so common and serious that U.S. The National Security Agency issues recommendations regarding memory-safe languages. 1
Another strong side of Java is the native support for multithreading applications (parallel processing). When some task is very big and it takes a lot of CPU power to finish it, sometimes the only solution is to run the application on 2 or more computers, or to run it on 1 computer but in parallel with multithreading which can use more than one CPU to execute the application in parallel.
The Java secure design doesn’t stop there. Java also has (memory) garbage collection, which means that the unused memory will be automatically discarded and thus made free and less prone to exploitation of memory safety issues. In addition, it requires strong typing, which means that one variable that was declared to hold a number cannot hold other types such as characters or strings. This makes the code more robust, because the compiler will detect the “mistake” and will print the error instead of running the code. This is quite different with some scripting languages which do not check this, run the code and sometimes surprise us much later with problems that could have been detected immediately.
4. C
C programming language is one of the most important languages in the history of programming languages. It is a language used for many of the most important parts of the most basic computer programs like operating systems, drivers, microcontrollers and it is thus said to be used a lot for low-level and systems programming. It had a big influence on many of its successors and some of the programming languages are said to be part of the “C-family” because of their similarities with C language (e.g. code blocks divided by curly braces “{ code block }” ).
It doesn’t have support for object oriented programming (OOP), and it allows pointers to be used to manage memory manually which is why it is not considered a memory safe language. However, the C language is one of the most efficient programming languages (meaning the C programs are usually blazingly fast compared to some other), but all that comes at the cost of easy of learning compared to some other (especially scripting) languages.
5. C#
C#, as it’s name suggests, belongs to the C-family of programming languages. It supports Object Oriented Programming which makes it more similar to C++ and Java, but is considered a bit less platform independent compared to Java, although it is considered cross-platform by means of .NET framework. However, it is usually better suited for creating applications for Windows and Microsoft-centric environments, especially because it is usually easier to create Windows graphical (GUI) applications with C#.
Like Java, C# is strongly typed and more memory safe then C and C++ and is used for enterprise application development in Windows and Microsoft-centric environments. In addition, it is used in game development (for which “Unity” framework is very popular).
6. JavaScript
Contrary to what many would think when first looking at its name, JavaScript is not closely related to Java. JavaScript and Java are 2 totally different languages.
JavaScript is, indeed, a scripting language which got famous and is still best known for front-end development (i.e. development and scripting of webpages). If some functionality needs to be implemented on a website so that it changes something inside the user’s browser then it almost certain that the front-end part will be done with JavaScript. However, more and more people work with JavaScript for the back-end part (the part of the application which executes fully on the server and is sent to the user’s browser). That it why it is said that JavaScript can be used for full-stack development (meaning both front-end and back-end parts of an application).
JavaScript has native support for JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) which is likely the most popular format for moving data and interacting with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). JavaScript has a very big ecosystem of frameworks and libraries (already written code that can be easily reused without needing to write the same functionality yourself). Some of the most popular JavaScript front-end frameworks are React, Angular and Vue. Some of the frameworks are maintained, supported and used by some of the biggest tech companies in the world.
Notable feature of JavaScript, especially for back-end development, is weak typing (which means that a variable can hold a number and then it can be changed to hold a string). This can lead to mistakes that slip through the review and can cause errors later when it gets harder to find it and fix it. An example of this is when some variable “a” holds number 2 and we add to it a string “2” we then get string “22” instead of a number 4 which some may expect at the moment. That is why sometimes strongly typed languages are preferred for back-end applications.
Nevertheless, JavaScript remains essential for dynamic webpages and front-end, with more and more people using it for back-end (for which Node.js is a famous JavaScript (JS) framework).
7. SQL
SQL is unlike the other scripting or compiled languages mentioned above. SQL is used for working with relational databases (for example MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc). It is an indispensable tool when we need to work with major relational databases which support ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) compliance. That is often the case where the integrity and quality of data is of extreme importance, like with money transactions and similar functionalities needed by financial institutions.
It is said to be a declarative language because we use it to tell the database system what we want and now how we want it to be executed. Then the database systems usually optimizes the queries and executes the required code in order to give us what we have asked for with the SQL statement. For example, if we want to get all first names from a database table the SQL statement may look like this: “SELECT first_name FROM customers;” and the database system does the rest.