"Reprint" Why should I learn python in 2018?

This article was reproduced from 36KR

From web programming to fashionable AI, machine learning, this Python language, which enjoys the reputation of the Swiss Army Knife (universal tool), have you learned it?

Editor's note: According to Wikipedia's explanation, "Python is a widely used high-level programming language created by Guido van Rossum, the first edition released in 1991." Python's design philosophy emphasizes the readability of the code and the simple syntax. "With big data, the rise of artificial intelligence, more and more people are beginning to study the language." The following article is compiled from Alexus Strong on the online learning programming website Codecademy Why I AM Learning Python in 2018

We might say that Python "wind the head" in 2017. After all, the recent development trend of the language is difficult to overlook.

Growth trend of major programming languages image from Stack Overflow

However, "out of the limelight" means interest in the language may be slowed down. But what are some reasons to believe that Python will not be popular this time next year? This is the question I want to answer.

Why? In short, I'm looking for a new programming language. I learned a few Java lessons in college, but I haven't used them in years. I learned HTML and CSS, but I am now looking for a language that can be used outside of web development. Most importantly, I want to make sure that what I learn today will be available for the next five years.

So, not only for myself, but for each student, I decided to delve into the reasons behind the rise of Python to try to understand why there are so many people learning the language today, and whether it will be the same for next year, and what it means for you, for me and for our cause.

The rise of Python

Programming languages are always coming and going. Python's recent popularity is fascinating. Not long ago, many people thought it was dead.

In 1999, Larry Wall, the founder of the Perl programming language, Larry Wall his third annual keynote speech to his solid fans. In his speech, he announced the need for various languages drawn on the dice.com of the career website:

Image source: wall.org

As you can see, Python was not registered at that time. As a very biased language, Python had little visibility at the time. "There may not be much demand for Python programmers, and Python programmers are easy to find and don't have to advertise in dice.com," Walter said. ”

Interestingly, Python has become more powerful. Last fall, Stack Overflow confirmed that, on their website, the number of visitors to the python problem grew faster than in any other language, making Python eligible to claim that it was one of the fastest growing major programming languages in the world.

The number of users registering for a free Python course on Codecademy also shows support for this claim-the number of users who are currently learning Python on Codecademy is up 34% from a year earlier.

So why is the language so quick to be welcomed?

Image source: languagehealth.com

Why is Python?

Stack overflow boils down to a major reason: the rise of Python is associated with the rise of interest in data science.

Their analysis is fascinating and worth reading, but it's too long to read: D, in short, "Python's popularity in Data science and machine learning may be a major driver of its rapid development." "I'm not going to bother to introduce you, these two are the most impressive technology trends of the 2017.

However, there is still a major problem here. There are a number of other programming languages, such as SQL and r, that can be used in the field of data science. But why are so many people choosing python?

One of the main factors is the versatility of Python. There are more than 125,000 third-party python libraries. These libraries make Python more accessible from traditional tasks such as web development, text processing, and the latest, such as AI and machine learning. For example, biologists may use the Biopython library to help them with gene sequencing.

In addition, Python has become the preferred language for data analysis. For data-centric libraries like pandas,numpy and matplotlib, anyone familiar with Python syntax and rules can deploy it as a powerful tool for processing, manipulating, and visualizing data.

Our data analytics course developers and Codecademy's chief data scientist, Hillary Green-lerman, use these Python libraries every day. As a data scientist, she describes Python as "a very wonderful tool that draws on a variety of strengths" in a programming language.

"If you want to do something simple, it could be a line of code. If you want to do something very complicated, you can control it very well. “

Given its versatility and applicability to data analysis, a skill that becomes more and more important every day, I know that Python will occupy an important place. So if reading and writing data is one of my top priorities, should I start using python?

A businessman majoring in business, learning Python.

Hillary referred to Python as "a very wonderful tool that absorbs a variety of strengths" in the programming language, because it can do what she needs, but she is a professional data scientist. I am not, so my request and her request will be a little different. Can python bring any benefit to people like me?

I don't want to learn python to be a data scientist or a software engineer. Instead, my goal is to focus more on improving the level of data analysis, using programming skills for web development, or preparing for any other technical needs that may arise in my future career.

I'm not the only one who has this idea. More and more people looking for programming knowledge don't want to be full-time software developers or data scientists. Conversely, some professionals, such as marketers, project managers and entrepreneurs, are using programming techniques to better engage in their work. These people are either looking for the latest knowledge, or have no time to learn a new programming language for each purpose.

Python attracts us in the non-technical field, and it can easily implement data analysis capabilities without any limitations, becoming an increasingly important skill in the business world.

"Data-driven decisions are becoming increasingly popular," the Forbes report said. In the past few years, analysts have been using software like Excel to analyze data, and only academics will turn to tools such as Spss,stata, which is now changing.

Even as a content marketer, according to Andrew Chen, a marketing expert, I can work better by learning data.

The new role of "growth hacker" is being incorporated into the culture of Silicon Valley, emphasizing that coding and understanding technology are becoming an important part of a great marketer. Chen, the growth hacker is a mix of marketing and coding. "They put the emphasis on direct marketing on the basis of quantitative measurement, using spreadsheets for model design and large-scale data query work." ”

When you read "database query", you think of Sql,python and R. Learning Python seems to be something that many people who do work like me have already taken action.

So, the next question: Can I learn python? As I mentioned earlier, my coding skills have nothing to write about. Thankfully, Python is the language of choice for learning programming. The reason is simple, it is direct, and there are many free resources that have been built up, making it easy to learn.

It has some strict syntax rules that keep the code consistent, so the code between the different people looks similar. Even those who lack experience can read in a very good way.

Let's say I want to print the following paragraph in Python 3. I will write:

Print ("On the other hand, if I wanted to print the next paragraph in C + +, I would has to write:")

#include <iostream>

int main () {

Std::cout << "All of this ' s to say, Python was pretty simple in comparison.\n";

}

Novice programmers are also welcome in the Python community. As Hillary describes it, the language itself and the community around it have this attitude: "Don't worry, we'll protect you if something goes wrong." “

Although Python is great for beginners, it also has all the features you need to do advanced work. Hillary uses Python every day to process and analyze millions of of the data from Codecademy, she said: "You can really do everything in python, there are a lot of real, rigorous people using it." She continued, "Python will grow with you." It will be easy at first, but when one day you decide to do natural language processing, machine learning or tensorflow, it becomes very relevant. You can also do it all, because it is a complete language. “

In our global future work report 2017, we found that our students were moving in the direction of Python and then never left. People who have already used Codecademy to learn other languages (40%) To learn python, this is higher than the proportion of people who have learned python to learn other languages (25-30%). This data seems to be consistent with the view of Hillary-you can do a lot of things with Python, which is probably the only language a person like me needs.

So what's next?

I am well aware that Python is the Swiss Army knife in programming languages-a versatile tool that can be used in any profession. For this reason, I believe it will not disappear quickly.

This is ideal for novice programmers, marketers, business analysts, bankers, and anyone who wants to use the data more. So, I know which language I will learn next-this introductory course takes only 13 hours.

Are you ready to start using Python with me? Our free Python course will take you from basic syntax to more advanced concepts such as iterative data structures. Like Python itself, this course is designed to give you the depth you want, no matter which direction is beneficial to you and your career.

If you're interested in applying python to data science and analytics, in our data analytics intensive course, you'll learn how to manipulate, analyze, and visualize data using the Python Library-Panda, numpy,scipy, and matplotlib-that are used daily by Hillary.

PostScript: If a reader wants to see Chinese materials, the following links may be helpful.

Python information in Chinese

1. Python Getting Started Guide

2. Python Resource Encyclopedia Chinese version

3. Python Philosophy (Python philosophy) translation and brief analysis

4. Pythondocument

Compile the group produced.

Editor: Cheng, Wang Ya-qi

"Reprint" Why should I learn python in 2018?