Which Programming Language Should We Use On A Regular Basis?

Data Analytics tools, latest technologies, and programming languages are required by data science which helps the data scientists to gain meaningful insights and value from the data. A recent survey of nearly 24,000 data professionals by Kaggle revealed that Python, SQL, and R are the most popular programming languages. The most popular programming language was Python 83% used. 3 out of 4 data professionals recommended Data Scientist should learn Python programming language.

Kaggle conducted a worldwide survey in October 2018 of 23,859 data professionals (2018 Machine Learning and Data Science Survey). This Kaggle survey consists of a large variety of questions about data science, machine learning, education and many more. Kaggle released the raw survey data and many of their members have analyzed the data. I will be exploring their survey data over the next couple of months. Most popular programming languages used by data scientist are as follow:

Most Popular Programming Languages:

The survey included a question, What programming languages do you use on a regular basis? On average, data professionals used 3 (median) languages in 2018. As seen in Figure, the top programming language in 2018 was Python (83% of respondents said they used this language), followed by SQL (44%) and R (36%). The top 10 languages are rounded out by C/C++, Java, Javascript/Typescript, Bash, MATLAB, C#/.Net, and Visual Basic/BVA.

Of the data professionals who identified as a data scientist, 93% used Python, 54% used SQL and 46% used R. The survey also asked the respondents, �??What specific programming language do you use most often?�?? As seen in Figure, a little over half (54%) of data professionals use Python most often. The remaining programming languages are much less popular, with only 13% of data pros saying they use R and 8% saying they use SQL.

Which Programming Language is Used Mostly By Professionals?

The survey also asked respondents what programming language they would recommend an aspiring data scientist to learn first (see Figure). Results showed that 3 out of 4 data professionals would recommend Python as the programming language aspiring data scientists to learn first. The remaining programming languages are recommended at a significantly lower rate (R recommended by 12% of respondents; SQL recommended by 5% of respondents. When looking at data professionals who identified as a data scientist, we find similar recommendations for aspiring data scientists: Python (78%), R (13%) and SQL (5%)

Conclusion:

The outcome of the Kaggle survey of over 23,000 data professionals paints a clear picture of the most popular programming languages for data professionals. Python is the most popular programming language, followed by SQL and R. Not surprisingly, Python is the most recommended programming language for aspiring data scientists. So, even though data professionals have access to many different programming languages, it appears that Python is becoming the default programming language for data science and machine learning.

Source: HOB

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