Explain Python vs Scala

Python and Scala are both programming languages. Python is a high level programming language which is used in many sectors including development, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data analytics. Scala is the programming language which runs on JVM(Java Virtual Machine).It is used for functional programming and strong static systems. Scala has the capability to interoperate with the existing code and libraries of Java. Scala is used in many sectors including android and desktop applications, frontend and backend of web applications with scala.js.

We will be discussing about certain differences between the two.

• Python is a dynamically typed language whereas Scala is a statically typed language. Dynamically typed languages perform type checking at runtime whereas the statically typed languages perform type checking at compile time. If a statically typed language has errors, it will fail to compile until the errors are fixed.

• The datatypes in Python are decided at the runtime. We need not specify the datatypes of the variables beforehand. Whereas this is not the case in Scala.

• Python has tools for Machine Learning, data science and Natural Language Processing(NLP). Python has various libraries such as Pandas, Matplotlib, Numpy, Keras, Pytorch and TensorFlow. All these libraries are excellent for building ML and Deep Learning projects. Whereas Scala provides no such tools and hence cannot be used in these domains.

• Python is a bit slower since it runs on interpreter whereas Scala runs faster than Python. Thus, in terms of speed performance, Scala is better than Python.

• The Python syntax is easier and short as compared to the syntax of Scala and thus Python is the recommended language for the beginners.

• Python has comparatively huge community and users across the world. Scala too has a large community but not as Python.

• Python languages is much prone to bugs everytime you make changes in the existing code whereas this is not the case in Scala. Scala is less prone to bugs.

• Python doesn’t provide scalable features support whereas Scala provides scalable feature support.

These were some of the differences between Python and Scala. The language to be preferred between these two completely depends on the type of project and its requirements. Both the languages have their distinct advantages and limitations. If you are building some project related to ML, you would go for Python. If you are building some project where speed is important, you may prefer Scala over Python. Thus, the use case would decide which of the two language is best suited.