Difference Between C and Python

One of the most frequently asked questions by people who have just started
out their careers in the field of computer science or related fields is which
programming language they should use. Well, there are a lot of programming
languages that have been developed by people all round the globe over the
years. However, there are two languages in particular which have seemed to
attract coders a lot – C and Python.

While C was developed and released way before Python and had gotten a lot
of attention during the time of its release, it seems that Python is more popular
than C in today’s modern world because of a lot of reasons. Therefore, it is
important for all coders or developers to know what are the differences
between C and Python so that they can take the right step in their coding
career by picking a language of relevance. Through this article, we try to give
an introduction to both these programming languages C and Python, and also
highlight the key differences between the two.

Introduction to C

C was developed at Bell Labs by Dennis Ritchie between the years 1972 and
1973. C is one of the oldest general purpose programming languages of all
time and it was developed to construct utilities running on Unix and was
applied to re-implement the kernel of the Unix operating system. In the
modern world, C finds its application in the development of a number of
firmware and portable systems. C supports a plethora of features like
structured programming, lexical variable scope, and recursion, with a static
type system, etc.

C is also known as a middle level language as it combines the features of both

high level languages (programming languages that enable programmers to
write programs that are more or less independent of a particular type of
computer) and low level languages (programming languages that provides
little or no abstraction from a computer’s instruction set architecture, that is,
commands or functions in the language map that are structurally similar to
processor’s instructions). C is a procedural language that has a lot of features
like structured programming, lexical variable scope, pointers, etc. due to which
it gained a lot of attraction during the time of its release.
Key Features of C

Let us now have a look at some of the most important features of C:-

• C is a structured programming language (structured programming is a

programming paradigm aimed at improving the clarity, quality, and
development time of a computer program by making extensive use of
the structured control flow constructs of selection statements like if,
then, else and repetitive statements like while and for, block structures,
and subroutines) which is extremely easy to learn.

• It is an efficient programming language, that is, it is fast and has very

good performance as it is a compiled language.

• C is a highly portable and extensible programming language because it

is not tied to any hardware or system. Any code written in C can be run
on any machine which supports C, without modifying a single line of
code.

• C has a rich set of built-in Operators and libraries with functions.

• C is a modular language, that is, it emphasizes on separating the

functionality of a program into independent, interchangeable modules,
such that each contains everything necessary to execute only one
aspect of the desired functionality.

Introduction to Python

One of the most promising languages of the upcoming times, Python is a

general purpose high level language which is interpreted. Python was first
released in 1991 as a successor to the ABC programming language. One of
the most striking features of Python is its indentation that has been
emphasized a lot to improve code readability. Python supports a lot of
programming paradigms, for instance, Object Oriented Programming,
Functional Programming, Structured Programming, etc.

Python is dynamically-typed and garbage-collected. Due to the plethora of

features which Python offers, it is one of the most in demand programming
languages and has its application in a variety of fields like Software
Engineering, Data Science, for instance, in Machine Learning, Deep Learning,
etc. It is extremely user friendly and is therefore, due to the ease with which
Python code can be written, Python is being adopted by a lot of developers
nowadays as their primary programming language.
Key Features of Python

Let us now have a look at some of the most important features of Python:-

• Python is a very simple, readable open source programming language

which is extremely easy to learn.

• Python is an interpreted language and not a compiled language.

• Python also supports the Object Oriented Programming Model.

• Python is platform independent and easily extensible and embeddable.

• It has a huge standard library with lots of modules and packages which
support a lot of common and important functionalities. Python has one
of the largest communities on StackOverflow and Meetup.

• Python is a high level language as it is easy to use because of simple

syntax, powerful because of its rich libraries and extremely versatile.

Key Differences

Before taking a deep dive into all the differences between C and Python, let us
take a look at some of the most basic yet remarkable differences between the
two programming languages. Firstly, C is a compiled language while Python is
an interpreted language. Python is an Object Oriented Programming
language (a programming model which is based upon the concept of objects,
in which all the entities are represented as objects) while C is a Structured,
Procedure Oriented Programming language (a programming model which
can be said to be derived from structured programming, based upon the
concept of calling procedures or functions).

Also, C is predominantly used in the development of firmware and portable

systems where high speed and high performance are of utmost priority. On
the other hand, Python is a general purpose programming language which
has found its application in a variety of fields like Software Engineering, Data
Science, etc.
Differences Between C and Python

Let us now dive deep into all the differences between C and Python to
evaluate which one is better in the competition: C vs Python.

Comparison
C Python
Parameter
The Python programming language
The C programming language was
Developed / was first worked upon by Guido van
developed by Dennis M. Ritchie in
Founded by Rossum and was released in the year
1972.
1991.
Programming C is a procedural programming Python is an object oriented
model language programming language.
C is a middle level language as it Python is a high-level language as the
Type of binds the bridges between translation of Python code takes place
language machine level and high level into machine language, using an
languages. interpreter.
C is a compiled programming
Python is an interpreted programming
language. Special programs
Compilation language. Special programs known as
known as compilers check the C
and interpreters check the entire Python
code line by line and if any error is
Interpretation code and all the errors in the entire
found on any line, the program
Python code is reported at once.
compilation stops then and there.
Python programs are usually slower
C is a faster language compared
Speed than C programs as they are
to Python as it is compiled.
interpreted.
In C, the type of the various In Python, variables are untyped, that
Variable
variables must be declared when is, there is no need to define the data
Declaration
they are created, and only values type of a variable while declaring it. A
 of those particular types must begiven variable in Python can store
assigned to them. values of different data types in
different parts of the Python code.
Memory management is automatically
Memory Memory management needs to be
handled in Python by the Garbage
Management done manually in C.
Collector provided by it.
Pointers C has support for pointers. Python has no support pointers.
In C, mostly the functional units In Python, mostly the functional units
Functional
are functions as it is a procedural are objects as it is an object oriented
Units
programming language. programming language.
Python is a more robust programming
C is a less robust programming
Robustness language compared to C as it has
language compared to Python.
strong memory management schemes.
The C programming language is
Python is a general purpose
Applications mostly used for the development
programming language
of hardware applications.
Built-in The number of built-in functions in There are a lot of built-in functions in
functions C are very limited. Python.
To use various data structures like It is easier to use Data Structures in
Usage of Data
stacks, queues, etc. in C, we need Python as it provides built in libraries
Structures
to implement them on our own. for the same.
Python does not allow inline
In line C allows inline assignment. For
assignment. For instance, a = 5; throws
assignment. instance: int a = 5; runs well in C.
an error in python.
C codes are stored with .c Python codes are stored with .py
Type of file
extension. extension.

Pros and Cons of C

Let us now take a look at some of the advantages of using C as a

programming language:-

• C is a procedure oriented programming language which offers high

speed of compilation.

• The C language is extremely easy to understand as its syntax is very

simple.

• It has support for a lot of built-in libraries.

• C supports a lot of features like structured programming, recursion,

pointers, structures, etc. which makes it simpler to solve a lot of
problems.
 • C codes can be easily extended. A lot of programming languages like
C++, Python, etc. have been created with C codes as their foundations.

Let us now take a look at some of the disadvantages of using C as a

programming language:-

• One of the drawbacks of C is that it does not support Object Oriented

Programming.

• C does not support run time polymorphism.

• There is no concept of automatic garbage collection in C. Garbage

Collection in C is done manually.

• C is somewhat a small and core machine language that offers minimum

data hiding and exclusive visibility. This has a major impact on the
security of this language.

• Since C is only compiled and is not interpreted, errors or bugs cannot

be detected after every line of code.

Pros and Cons of Python

Let us now take a look at some of the advantages of using Python as a

programming language:-

• Python is portable (computer programming language capable of

developing software for more than one computer system) and
interactive.

• Python is ideal for prototyping as it provides more functionality with very

few lines of code.

• It is very versatile, easy to read, learn and write with a great community
support.

• It has extensive support for libraries, for instance, NumPy for numerical
calculations, Pandas for data analytics, etc.

• Python is free and open source.

Let us now take a look at some of the disadvantages of using Python as a

programming language:-
 • Python has speed limitations (as it is interpreted) and is generally
slower compared to compiled languages like C and C++.

• Multithreading causes problems in Python due to the Global Interpreter

Lock (GIL). GIL is nothing but a mutex which allows only one thread to
execute at a time due to which, multi threaded CPU bound programs
are not as fast as the single threaded ones.

• Python is not native to the mobile environment and therefore, it can be

seen as a weak language for mobile computing. Android and iOS don’t
support Python as an official programming language.

• Python’s memory consumption is very high.

• Python also has its limitations with Database Access. Python’s database
access layer is primitive and underdeveloped in comparison to the
popular technologies like JDBC (Java DataBase Connectivity) and
ODBC (Open Database Connectivity).

Conclusion

So, in conclusion,we would like to mention that both the languages C and
Python are being used a lot by big Software Companies and therefore,
learning both of them could prove to be extremely useful. For the budding
coders of today who are looking forward to taking a job in the Software
Industry, or already have a Software Engineering Job, it is better to learn more
about Python because of the diversity and flexibility it provides. Also, Python is
being extensively used by Data Scientists. However, for people looking to
work on building firmware systems, gaming engines, etc. where high
performance is needed, C can certainly prove to be a better choice of
programming language than Python as it is way faster than Python.

Reference:

https://www.interviewbit.com/blog/difference-between-c-and-python/ by
scaler academy.