Python Features: Core Features of Python

Nowadays, there are several programming languages out there, and each of them has its own unique features. Just like that, Python also contains some unique features which make it stand apart from the crowd.

For each project, there are requirements of certain characteristics, and developers choose the language according to that certain characteristics. It is very important for you to know about the features of any programming language before you start learning it.

Features of Python

The following are some of the most important features of Python:

A Language for the beginner

Python is considered as a language which is especially useful to learn for beginners. If someone has never programmed before, then, Python is a great option that will set the pace of the course by offering the basic concepts of programming.

There are two important factors that Python is known as a language for beginners:

• Easy to Code

Comparing Python with other programming languages such as Java, C, and C++, etc., Python is very easy and straightforward to code. It is easier for beginners that they can learn python syntax in just a few hours. However, getting mastering in Python requires learning all of its advanced concepts, packages, and modules, and it might take some time. In short, we can say that Python is a programmer-friendly language.

• Easy to Read

Python is a high-level programming language, and its code is almost similar to English. By reading the Python code, one can easily understand what the code is supposed to perform. Moreover, it is dynamically-typed, and so it mandates indentation. It provides good readability for Python.

Expressive

Python is also known for its expressiveness. For example, assume we have two programming languages X and Y. All the programs that we create on X, can also be created on Y using local transformations. However, there are some programs which can be created on Y, but not in X. Then, Y is said to be more expressive than X.

Python provides several constructs to the developers that help them to focus on a solution rather than focusing on syntax. This is one of the key features of the Python programming language.

Open-Source and Free to Use

Python language is freely available on the official website. You can easily download and install the Python on your system using the below link.

Python Download

We have also defined its installation process in the next topic.

Another great thing regarding Python is that it is open-source. Since it is open-source, this means that source code is available publicly. You can download it, modify it, use it, and distribute it without permission from its developers. This mechanism is known as FLOSS ( Free/Libre and Open Source Software). Being as open-source, most of the developers are headed towards the one goal of bettering Python.

Object-Oriented

A programming language containing object-oriented features can model the real world. It focuses on objects and simulates the data and functions. Moreover, a procedure-oriented language resolves around functions and adds an option to reuse the code. Python supports both the features; it is procedure-oriented as well as an object-oriented programming language which is one of the main python features. Python also supports concepts of classes and object encapsulation etc. The class mechanism allows the addition of classes with minimal syntaxes. The classic mechanism which can be seen in Modula-3 and C++ form the heart of Python.

Unlike Java, Python also supports multiple inheritances. A class is said to be a blueprint for such an object which is an abstract data type and keeps no values.

High-Level

As we said earlier, Python is a high-level programming language. It means that we don't need to remember the system architecture for writing programs in Python. We do not even need to manage the memory. It makes the Python language programmer-friendly.

Portable

Python language is known as a portable programming language. For example, assume you have written a Python code for windows, and you want to run this code on any other platform such as Linux, Unix or Mac then you don't need to change it, it can be efficiently run on other platforms. This means that you don't need to write different code for different types of machines. It makes Python a cross-platform language.

However, it is important that you avoid any system-dependent features in this case.

Interpreted

If you are a little familiar with languages like C++ or Java, then you may know that you have to first compile it and then run it. But, Python is an interpreted language which means that Python code is executed line by line at a time and there is no need to compile it. Because of no separate compilation process, it is easy to debug the code. The program would be efficiently run from the source code itself.

Internally, Python source code is converted into an immediate form known as a bytecode which is then transformed into the respective machine code. Therefore, all you need to do is to run your Python code without worrying about linking to libraries and some other things.

Extensible

Python is an extensible programming language. You can write Python code into C or C++ language and also compile in C/C++. This feature defines that Python can be extended to other languages.

GUI Programming

Python supports GUI (Graphical User Interfaces) programming. Such interfaces can be designed using a module such as PyQt5, PyQt, wxPython, or Tk in Python.

Embeddable

We have seen that we can use code in other languages in Python source code. However, it also provides an option to use its code in the source code of other languages like C++. This feature of Python language allows the developers to integrate the scripting capabilities into our program of the other language.

Extensive Standard Library

The standard library in Python is quite huge. It provides a rich set of modules and functions, so you don't have to write your own code for every single thing. There are many libraries available in Python to perform documentation-generation, unit-testing, threading, image manipulation, and lots of other functionalities.

Dynamically Typed Language

Python is dynamically-typed, which means that the type (e.g., int, double, long, float, etc.) for a variable is decided at runtime, not in advance. Therefore, we are not required to specify the type of data for a variable while declaring it.