Difference Between C vs Python
C is a structured programming language, developed at Bell Laboratories in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie. C was originally developed to develop the UNIX operating system. All the programming languages are directly or indirectly derived from C.
C is a middle-level language, middle-level languages don’t provide all the built-in functions found in high-level languages, but provides all the building blocks that we need to produce the result we want. C is a structure oriented language. In a structure oriented language, the program is divided into smaller functions. This structure follows a “top-down” approach. C program consists of various tokens and a token is either a keyword, an identifier, a constant, a string literal, or a symbol.
To compile and execute C programs, you need to install C compiler in your machine. Then you just need a text editor for writing C programs.
C program basically consists of the following parts:
- Preprocessor commands
Header files that are required to execute a C program are included in this section.
- Function
Function prototype gives much information about a function like return type, parameter names used inside the function.
- Variables
In this section, variables are defined and values are set to these variables.
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- Statements and expressions
Every C program is started from the main function and this function contains two major sections called declaration section and the executable section.
- Comments
We can give comments about the program creation or modified date, author name etc. in this section. The characters or words or anything which are given between ‘/*’ and ‘*/’
won’t be considered by C compiler for compilation process. These will be ignored by C compiler during compilation.
Main points to remember while writing programs in C:
- C is a case sensitive programming language.
- Each c program statement is ended with a semicolon (;) which are referred to as statement terminator.
- Printf () command is used to print the output onto the screen, while scanf () is used to accept input from a user.
- C programs are compiled using C compiler and displays output when executed.
Python is an object-oriented programming language created by Guido Rossum in 1989. Python’s simple syntax and dynamic typing, together with its interpreted nature, make it an ideal language for scripting and rapid application development in many areas on most platforms.
Python is an interpreted language, which can save you considerable time during program development because no compilation linking is necessary.
Python allows you to split your program into modules that can be reused in other python programs. It comes with a large collection of standard modules that you can use as the basis of your programs or as examples to start learning to program in python. Some of these modules provide things like file I/O, system calls, sockets and even interfaces to graphical user interface toolkits like Tk.
Python is similar to C in terms of syntaxes but a few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly defined syntax.
A variable can have a short name (like x and y) or a more descriptive name (age, total_volume)
- A variable must start with a letter or the underscore character.
- A variable name cannot start with a number.
- A variable name can contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores.
- Variable names are case sensitive. (age, Age, and AGE are three different variables)
Suppose we want to do multiple assignments on a single line
>>># defining two variables on single line
…a, b = 0,1
Python files are stored with a .py extension. To test the small line of code, we can directly write it in command prompt.
- Type the following line to start python
C:\Users\YourName>Python
- From there you can write your python code.
>>>print (“Hello World!!!”)
- To quit from python, use the following command.
exit ()
Indentation is very important in python. Indentation indicates code block and gives an error if indentation is skipped.
If (5 > 2)
print (“5 is greater than 2”)
Head To Head Comparison Between C vs Python (Infographics)
Below is the top 10 Difference Between C vs Python
Key Difference Between C vs Python
Both C vs Python are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major Difference Between C and Python:
- C is a foundation of python.
- Both C vs python can be used in multithreading.
- As python is object-oriented, it has its own garbage collector whereas in C user has to manage memory on his own.
- C has compiled language. The complete source code is converted into a machine language which is easier for a computer to understand. Python on the other hand is interpreted. The interpreter reads each statement line by line. This makes python slower compared to C.
- The use of for loop syntax is totally different in python. Variable doesn’t need to be incremented manually.
C vs Python Comparison Table
Below is the top comparison between C vs Python.
| C |
Python |
| C is mainly used for hardware related applications. | Python is general purpose programming language. |
| Follows an imperative programming model. | Follows object-oriented programming language |
| Pointers available in C. | No pointers functionality available. |
| C is compiled. | Python is interpreted. |
| A limited number of built-in functions. | Large library of built-in functions. |
| Code execution is faster than python. | Slower compared to C as python has garbage collection. |
| Implementing data structures required its functions to be explicitly implemented. | Gives ease of implementing data structures with built-in insert, append functions. |
| It is compulsory to declare the variable type in C. | No need to declare a type of variable. |
| C program syntax is harder than python. | Python programs are easier to learn, write and read. |
| In line, an assignment is allowed. | In line, assignment gives an error. E.g. a=5 gives an error in python. |
Conclusion – C vs Python
A tough question arises as to when to use python and when to user C. C vs Python languages are similar yet have many key differences. C vs Python languages are useful languages to develop various applications. The difference between C and Python is that python is a multi-paradigm language and C is a structured programming language. Python is a general-purpose language that is used for machine learning, natural language processing, web development and many more. C is mainly used for hardware-related application development such as operating systems, network drivers. Before deciding on particular language keep in mind following things
- Ease of development: – python has very fewer keywords and more free English language syntax whereas C is far more difficult to write and maintain. Hence if you want an easy development process go for python.
- Performance: – Python is much slower than C as python takes significant CPU time for interpretation.
Recommended Article
This has been a useful guide to the top differences between C vs Python. Here we also discuss the C vs Python key differences with infographics, and comparison table. You may also have a look at the following C vs Python articles to learn more –
Ola says
A very useful site for learning which languages exist and their main differences. I learnt a lot – I came looking for why Python is so popular.