Updated May 8, 2023
Differences Between Perl vs Python
Perl is open-source, object-oriented programming used for building and implementing applications in Unix systems, similar to Python. There are a few significant differences between Perl vs Python. Perl requires a semicolon to indicate the end of the line, but Python doesn’t need it. Though Perl is not easy to learn, it makes text processing simple & short. At the same time, Python is easy to understand and requires functions for text processing.
Head-to-Head Comparison Between Perl vs Python (Infographics)
Below are the top 8 comparisons between Perl vs Python:
Key Differences Between Perl vs Python
Despite having many similarities, Perl vs Python has many differences as well; we will look into these differences between Perl and Python in detail:
1. Perl, we can say “Practical Extraction and Report Language,” but it is not official; on the other hand, Python is named after the famous artist of his time “, Monty Python.”
2. Perl was invented by Larry Wall in 1987, while Python by Guido van Rossum in 1989.
3. Python: First of all, there is only one way to get things done, but if there is another way, too, then it will replace the existing one.
For example: in Python 2.0, to print a message command is as follows:
Print “Hi, this is a text message from Python 2.0.”
But when they introduced Python 3.0, then the same thing can be done as
Print(“Hi, this is a text message from Python 3.0”)
Perl: If there is another way to do the thing, then include it also, i.e., not to replace existing but to add a new way for example: See the way to write the if statement in the comparison section)
4. Perl is considered for text processing, which helps in reporting, while Python is now a general-purpose language currently used in many fields.
Perl vs Python Comparison Table
Following is the comparison table between Perl vs Python:
| Basis For Comparison | Perl | Python |
| Command Line
|
If you are a window user, after installing Perl (from http://strawberryperl.com with 64 and 32 Version), you can open a common window that will look like this.
C:>perl -e <you can write Perl code here> If you are Linux or Unix user, then you can get the same thing as this: $perl -e <perl code goes here> |
For window users, after installing Python from Python.org in 32 or 64-bit versions, the code prompt will look like this to run the pythPythone from the Python script file.
C: >python script.py (Here script.py is a python file which contains code) $python script.py |
| Whitespaces | Perl does not care about whitespaces. | Python deals with whitespaces and will give syntax errors if whitespaces are not according to Python. |
| Comment | The statement started with # will be considered as a comment.
# This is an Inline comment in Perl For example: = This is a comment for Perl |
# This is an inline comment in Python Three inverted commas are also can be used as documentation or comment”This is for Python and can be used in documentation as well as in the comment.” |
| Statement End | In Perl Statement ends with; | While in Python, it is not required to end the program statement as it deals with whitespaces. |
| Way of writing Code | 1: Perl provides freedom to write same code in different styles. For example, take the if statement You can declare the If statement in the following ways:if ($var1 != $var2) { print “Both are not same\n”; } unless ($var1 == $var2) { print “Both are same\n”; }———————————————– print “Both are same\n” unless $var1 == $var2 ; print “Both are not same\n” if $var1 != $var2 ;———————————————– $var1 == $var2 || print “Both are same\n”; $var1 != $var2 or print “Both are not same\n”; 2: Statement starts and ends with curly braces { }if (($var1 != $var2) {print “hello world”;} |
1: Python does not believe as such and is forced to write code in its ethnic way. For the if statement, you get things like this: if(var1 == var2) : print(“Both are same”) 2: Python uses indentation for the same (as you can see above if statement) |
| Regular Expression | Part of the language which makes text processing easy and short. |
Need to deal with functions and methods for regex. |
| Easier to Learn | In comparison to Python, Perl is not easy to learn. |
Python is easy to learn. |
| File Extension | .pl
For example, myDocument.pl |
.py
Example: myFile.py A subset of computer science where data is studied using different methods and technologies. |
Conclusion
We saw some significant differences between Perl vs Python, the two languages. Still, many of us believe everything has its advantages and disadvantages, and we do not go black and white. That becomes easy when you are familiar with any language and have earned a lot.
As we can say, Perl allows you to include a different way to do things; however, Python restricts you. However, an easier way, and this is why Python is gaining popularity in all aspects while Perl is still in use and still has vast community support. Still, when we see things worldwide, Python dominates with many packages that support all computing environments.
So can we say Perl is useless nowadays? The answer is No. Perl is still in use in many of the Linux supporting systems in a real-time scenario where we require dealing with text processing a lot. But when you ask me for a career perspective, I suggest going ahead with Python because it is used in many modern technologies like Machine Learning and Data Science; this is simple and easy to use.
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This has been a guide to Perl vs Python. Here we have discussed Perl vs Python head-to-head comparison, key differences, infographics, and a comparison table. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
