Top 12 Features of Python You Need to Know

Introduction to Python

Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language developed by Guido Van Rossum in February 1991.

Python is designed such that it emphasizes more on code readability by the use of significant indentation. It is dynamic and one of the most versatile programming languages that we have so far.

Python is very easy to learn as well as use for getting started with programming and is one such language that finds its applications in a wide-ranging area. Using Python, we can not only develop computer software but also web and android applications, embedded system programs, and a lot more.

Python has several features and strong community support due to which it has a huge collection of built-in modules and libraries for a variety of applications. Not limited to this, Python also supports Object Oriented Programming as well as Procedural Oriented Programming approach. Python 3.9.0 is the latest version that has been released with many features and optimizations.

In the past years, Python has been consistently ranked as one of the most popular programming languages.

Let’s look through the features of Python that make it such a popular and special programming language.

Top Features of Python

As such there are many features of python but those that make it so popular and application-oriented in various domains are discussed below.

1. Easy to Learn

Python is one of the most user-friendly programming languages. One can easily learn the basics of Python and become familiar with its syntax and be able to write basic programs in a few days. However, learning the advanced concepts and mastering python may take you some time. Compared to other languages like C, C++, Java, etc, Python is the easiest language to learn and master

2. Easy to Code

The syntax of Python is very easy. It generally comprises words from the English language. While writing the code it generally feels like giving the instructions to a child. Apart from this, unlike other programming languages (like C, C++, Java, etc., there is no need to take care of any opening or closing of brackets for defining the scope. In Python, we use indentation (spaces or Tabs) for the scope that makes the code look clean and impressive.

3. Interpreted language

Python code is not compiled at once, converted to a .exe file, and then executed. Python is an interpreted language that means its code is executed line by line and not all at once like in other programming languages. This line-by-line execution also makes it easy to debug the code.

4. Free and Open Source

Python is a free and open-source programming language, which means that it can be used for free of cost on any operating system and without any copyright issues.

Anyone can download Python from its official website along with its libraries and documentation. Not only can you download, but it also allows you to make your own modules or libraries and distribute them.

5. Object-Oriented Language

Object-Oriented Programming is a programming paradigm that is based on the concepts of classes and objects.

Classes serve as a blueprint for objects, which contains the data and methods that act on that data. The object-oriented programming concept is focused on making reusable code with a good level of abstraction. One of the critical aspects of Python is Object-Oriented programming.

Python supports object-oriented programming constructs like classes, data encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, etc. In Python, we can easily create and use classes, objects and can implement OOP constructs. Due to this approach, one can build efficient and powerful applications in Python.

6. Cross-Platform Language

Python is a cross-platform language. Many times while downloading some software from some website you might have noticed a list of versions of that software compatible with different operating systems. In Python it’s not the case, once you write a python code on one machine or operating system then it can be run anywhere.

For example, if we have made a python program on Mac then we can run the same code in Linux, Windows, or any other operating system without any changes. This is because the python code first is converted to an intermediate form known as Bytecode and is then executed.

7. Extensive feature

Python has the capabilities to be extended and be a more versatile programming language. Python proves to be a versatile language as it covers a large area in software development applications due to its adaptability to various functionalities. We can compile the code in languages like C/C++, and then can use that in our python code which can be compiled and run anywhere. It allows the execution of the code written in other programming languages. This provides Python new capabilities and functionality by integrating other programming language’s code.

8. High-Level Language

Python is a high-level programming language which means that users can easily write and understand or interpret the code.

High-level programming language enables the programmer to write codes that are less independent of the specific machine type. Python is a programming language with very strong abstraction from the low-level constructs of the system or machine. While writing code, the developer need not be concerned about the architecture, memory management, or the underlying machine type.

9. Databases Support

Today almost every application we need to develop certainly requires a database and here comes the Python Database API (DB-API) that provides an interface to almost most of the major commercial databases. Some of the databases supported by standard python are MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL, Oracle, Informix, etc.

We need to import the interface for the particular database to use it. Using Python you can deal with both relational as well as non-relational databases.

10. GUI Programming Support

When we use our computers or smartphones, How do we interact with them, or what do we see?

Obviously, the screen has various icons of applications and when we open some applications we see a nice visual representation that makes it easy for us to interact and use that application. This is what we call GUI or Graphical User Interface. It is one of the key aspects of the Python Programming language. Python has many GUI libraries like Tkinter, PyQT5, PSide2, etc. GUI provides a user to interact with the application and the system more easily and python GUI libraries have the features that make the development of graphics-intensive software easy and fast.

11. Large Standard Library

Python consists of a bulk of libraries that are cross-platform and provides a rich set of modules and functions. These libraries are compatible with various operating systems like UNIX, Mac, windows, etc. Due to the large number of libraries we need not write code for every single thing instead import and use the functionality required.

For example, if you need to access some websites and want to scrape data from them, then you don’t need to write the functions for request, response, and other things, from scratch. There are various libraries available for this purpose which you can use.

We can also install other packages that aren’t a part of the standard library if we need more functionality.

12. Dynamic Typed Language

Python is a Dynamically-Typed language. Dynamically-typed means that, unlike other programming languages, in Python, we need not declare the data type( for example, int, float, double, char, etc.) of a variable explicitly. The data type of the variable is decided at the run time. Apart from this one variable can be used to store different types of data at different instances in the program. This feature of python saves a lot of time and helps us to avoid pitfalls that might have occurred if it required the datatype to be mentioned explicitly.

Apart from the above-discussed features of Python, there are several advanced programming mechanisms like comprehensions, Generators, Decorators, etc. that makes it more special.

Also, memory management is ensured internally by the use of a private heap in Python. Due to this internal memory management, there is no concept of pointers in Python.

Hope that you find the article useful and understood the important features of Python and why Python is such a robust and powerful programming language.