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Comparing the Best in Android: Kotlin VS Java, Who Wins the Race?

The World Is Moving Forward and the Ones Not Choosing the Best Are Left Behind. Therefore, to Stand Tall in the Market, It Is Necessary for You to Choose the Best.

By App EmporioPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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As the mobile app development has grown tremendously over the past few years, the industries have started facing the change and the new world is totally dependent on newer technologies. With millions of software development companies supporting mobile application development, it has become easier for businesses to get their own application developed, which can lead to the success of their business as these applications are best at providing excellent user experience to the customers out there. Therefore, the development is required to be done excellently to win them over and let the business grow.

The primary platforms where mobile application development has grown are Android and iOS. As Android is made available freely to all the smartphone companies out there by Google, the number of mobile devices supporting and using Android is large when compared to the devices supporting iOS. Therefore, the industry requirement for an excellent Android developer is at its peak when there is constant change in the technologies being used for developing one. Hence, the development of a mobile application is swiftly changing and facing new approaches that lead to better development of an application.

When it comes to Android, the development of an application was performed previously using Java, which is yet present and is used for developing an application. However, with the upgrades in the technology, Kotlin has been introduced to the development market which also supports the Android development at its best and is also fully compatible with Java. However, there is still a debate going on among the developers for choosing the one that suits the best and fits their requirements perfectly. Here is a comparison of both to make it easier for you to choose the one that fits your requirements like a glove and get your development started with excellent and efficiency.

The Reason Behind The Popularity Of Java

As Android has been developed using Java, C, and C++ programming languages, Java has been established as an excellent language to get an application developed. Also, the extended support for Java from the Android Studio IDE (Integrated Development Environment) has also worked its charm to turn developers towards using Java as the programming language.

Also, the generated object code of Java can be run on any platform, which makes it easier to use for the developers. Therefore, there are many advantages to using Java as the programming language for developing an Android application. These reasons have contributed to making Java the second most popular language on Github. Therefore, companies also look for a thorough knowledge of Java when they are out to hire android developers as it is the most basic requirement for starting off with the development of an Android application.

What is Kotlin?

Kotlin is a programming language that runs on JVM (Java Virtual Machine) and is developed by JetBrains, an open-source community. Google officially announced it as a language for Android app development in 2017. Since then, Kotlin has been gaining popularity among Android developers with its ease-of-use features and excellent compatibility with Java. Kotlin has been designed to make its type interface become more compact compared to Java, which works in the favor of Kotlin. Also, it includes compilation support for JavaScript and native code.

Easy to Learn

Offering the compact type interface, Kotlin poses a great opportunity for developers to get known to it in lesser time. Without requiring much development effort, Kotlin makes it easier for developers to write code that is efficient and is also not long. Therefore, any Android development beginner can start off with learning Kotlin and can develop an application requiring much less effort. Also, if you possess the experience of coding with C# or Java, switching to Kotlin for developing an Android application does not ask much from you. Therefore, by providing an advantage over Java and asking for much less coding, Kotlin wins the hearts of developers

Security of Code

While coding for a complex problem, chances of coming across the null pointers exception, which does not allow you to compile the code and are also difficult to find, are high. Providing the solution to this problem faced when coding in Java, Kotlin makes use of the "?" operator to instruct the compiler to check the value of variable every time the code or function from the code runs to ensure no null pointer exception has been thrown and hence the code becomes more reliable with this feature. Therefore, the security and reliability of the code are maintained while diminishing the chances for the occurrence of null pointer exceptions.

Use of Extension Functions

Extension functions are developed and designed to extend the functionalities of a class without needing to inherit or use decorate patterns, which are not available in Java. Instead, the use of collections (java.util.Collection) is preferred for extending a class' functionality. However, Kotlin has made the extension functions available to use and the developers are going gaga over this. Putting up a simple code can make a function available for use in other classes and also can extend to availability of it to other classes.

There are many other benefits Kotlin owns over Java, and hence it is becoming increasingly popular among developers to use instead of Java. However, Java still holds its own significance and is widely used for developing enterprise-grade applications. It is important to note that Kotlin requires you to hold a basic understanding of Java or any other programming language. Therefore, choosing the one suiting your requirements depends upon the approach and framework your developers are compatible with.

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About the Creator

App Emporio

AppEmporio is the pioneers in the field of providing mobile-based solutions for all sized business with the leading vision of enriching and enhancing the customer experience of using mobile apps by amplifying mobile ROI.

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