A comparison of Python 2.x and Python 3.x with examples

Introduction

Python is a popular programming language that is widely used in the software development industry. It is one of the most popular languages in use today, and there are many reasons why Python has become such a popular language for web developers, data scientists and software engineers alike. The Python community is extremely active and welcoming to newbies who want to learn about Python so we’ll help you get started with choosing between learning Python 2.x and 3.x. We will compare how two different versions of the same language work with examples and comparisons in this blog post!

What is Python 2?

Python 2 is a legacy version of the Python programming language that was released in 2000.

Python 2 is a high-level, general-purpose, scripting language with a simple and attractive syntax. It emphasizes code readability and has been used in many areas of computing.

Python 2 is designed as such to emphasize code readability and gives the programmer control over low-level details. The language provides support for object-oriented programming (OOP), generic programming, automated testing and program maintenance to a great extent.

Why do you need to learn Python 2?

Python 2 is the most popular language in the world, and it has been for years. If you’re looking to get started with programming, learning Python 2 will be easier than learning Python 3. It is still used in many fields or industry projects.

Python 2 is more stable and secure than its successor, I mean that you can be much more confident about your code being up-to-date when you use it. The documentation also looks better on a regular computer screen than what’s available for version 3.

Many older projects and libraries were written in Python 2, and although it is no longer the latest version of the language, Python 2 is still widely used in the software development industry. Therefore, developers need to be familiar with the language to work on these projects. Further, Some education settings still use Python 2, so students may need to learn the language as part of their coursework.

What is Python 3?

Python 3 is the latest version of Python. It was released in 2008 and has since become the default version of Python. It’s a programming language, like JavaScript or Java. It’s used to build websites and apps, perform data analysis and create video games. Python 3 is the future and new version of Python. Still, some of the developers prefer Python 2. It’s designed to make it easy for people to create software. It’s also a scripting language, which means that you can use it to automate tasks on your computer. Hence, it is recommended for all new development.

Some major differences between Python 2 and 3 are:

• The syntax for new features has changed significantly from version 2 to 3; this means that code written for one will probably not work as expected when you switch over to the other (unless you write it specifically for your project).
• Both versions support multiple platforms such as Windows, Linux/Unix, etc. but only natively on Linux (and Macs) through virtualization software.

Why do you need to learn Python 3?

Python 3 is the future of the Python language. As It includes many new features and improvements that make it more efficient and easier to use. However, Python 2 will not be going to be supported any longer. now if you’re interested in using Python at all in your future projects or jobs.

The biggest reason to learn Python 3 is that it’s being used by almost every web developer. It is also pretty easy to learn if you already know Python 2.x, so if you want to get started with web development or want to switch from PHP/JavaScript/C# or whatever else, this might be a good choice for you!

Important Differences between Python 2 and Python 3

Important differences between Python 2.x and Python 3.x includes:

Division operator

Python 2	Python 3
In Python 2, you used an operator to perform division. For example, if you wanted to divide 5 by 2, you would write 5 / 2. The division operator gives a result in float if both operands are integers. Which means that it returns the integer part of the division result.	In Python 3, however, the division operator has been removed from the language entirely. Instead of dividing two numbers together in a single step, it is now necessary to use a function called “floor division” which returns a float value instead of an integer value.

#Python 2.x
print 10 / 3 

#Python 3.x
print(10 / 3)  
Code language: Python (python)

Output

3
3.3333333333
Code language: Python (python)

print function

Python 2	Python 3
The print statement in this version is used to print output to the console.	The print function in this version is used instead. The print function is more flexible and allows developers to specify the end character and flush the output buffer.

#Python 2.x
print "Hello, World!"

#Python 3.x
print("Hello, World!")
Code language: Python (python)

Output

Hello, World!
Hello, World!
Code language: Python (python)

Unicode

Unicode is a character encoding that represents text in most of the world’s writing systems. It has become the standard for representing text in computing, data interchange and internationalization.

Unicode characters are represented by 16-bit numbers called code points (or codes). Unicode is a standard that allows many different writing systems to be represented by a single number. This makes it possible to exchange data between computers, no matter what language they were written in. Unicode supports more than 120 scripts and all major modern languages of the world.

Python 2	Python 3
The unicode type is used to represent Unicode strings in this context.	In Python 3, the str type is used to represent Unicode strings. For encoded strings, the bytes type is used.

# This will raise a UnicodeEncodeError in Python 2.x
print u"Hello, World!"

print("Hello, World!")  # This will work in Python 3.x
Code language: Python (python)

Output

Hello, World!
Hello, World!
Code language: Python (python)

xrange

Python 2	Python 3
In Python 2, The xrange function generates a sequence of numbers starting from 0 and ending before the specified end value, if given. If no end value is provided, it produces an empty sequence.	The “xrange” is not available in Python 3. Instead, it has a range() function.

#Python 2.x
for i in xrange(3):
    print i

#Python 3.x
for i in range(5):
    print(i)
Code language: Python (python)

Output

0
1
2

0
1
2
3
4
Code language: Python (python)

Error Handling

Python 2	Python 3
In Python 2, the raise statement is used to raise exceptions. except statement to caught the exception.	Similarly, In Python 3, the as keyword is introduced for exception handling.

#Python 2.x
try:
    # Some code that might raise an exception
    x = 5 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError:
    # This code will be executed if a ZeroDivisionError is raised
    print("Division by zero!")

#Python 3.x
try:
    # Some code that might raise an exception
    x = 5 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
    # This code will be executed if a ZeroDivisionError is raised
    # The exception instance is assigned to the variable "e"
    print("Division by zero:", e)
Code language: Python (python)

Future module

Python 2	Python 3
In Python 2, the future module is used to enable new language features that are not compatible with the current version of Python.	In Python 3, these features are automatically enabled and the future module is no longer needed.

from __future__ import division

x = 5 / 2
print(x)
Code language: Python (python)

Output

2.5
Code language: Python (python)

Conclusion

In summary, I would recommend learning Python 3. This is the end of the post. We hope that you have learned something new and interesting about Python 2.x and Python 3.x. We will be back soon with more articles about Python!

FAQs

How do Python 2 and Python 3 work?

Both Python 2 and Python 3 are high-level programming languages that are widely used in the software development industry. They both have a large standard library and a large community of users, which makes them both powerful and easy to use. However, there are some key differences between the two versions, as discussed in the previous section.

Which Python version is better, Python 2 or Python 3?

If you’ve been using Python for a long time, you may have heard that Python 2 is better than Python 3. But this isn’t true, both versions are equally good and have their strengths.

Python 3 was released in 2008 while Python 2 was released in 1995. Both versions have been around for almost 20 years now! It’s easy to see why people would want to switch from one version to another when they realize how much has changed since the last release date (or even during). The big difference between these two versions is how they handle whitespace characters—but beyond that, it’s hard to find too many differences between them overall. they’re pretty similar under the hood with just minor alterations here or there depending on which version you’re running.

Do you prefer Python 2 or Python 3?

In my opinion, Python 3 is generally the better choice due to its many new features and improvements.

Is Python 2 better than Python 3 in your opinion?

As a Python developer, you may be wondering whether Python 2 or 3 is better. In my opinion, there’s no right answer here. Both versions are great and can be used for different purposes.

For example, if you’re building an app that only supports Python 3 and not the older version of the language, then it makes sense to use the newer version of your app because it will have better language features and syntax support than its predecessor—but this doesn’t mean that anyone should avoid learning about or trying out one or both versions before making their decision about which one(s) work best for them.

Python 2 or Python 3 is better, in your opinion?

The answer to this question is: it depends on your requirement and choice.

If you’re looking for a language that will challenge your abilities and help you grow as a programmer, then Python 3 might be for you. If you want to learn how to write code in an easy-to-learn language, then Python 2 may be better suited for your needs.

Both versions of Python are great languages with their strengths and weaknesses (as well as similarities). So before deciding which version of Python would work best for your project or team, consider what features matter most when choosing between them.