What Are the Most Popular Languages According to 2018 Developer Survey?

As the world's largest online developer community, Stack Overflow conducts research each year that yields invaluable data. More than 100,000 people participated in the developer research in 2018 and shared important information about their careers. In addition to information such as how they develop themselves and their expectations from the business environment, Stack Overflow has also achieved a remarkable result on the most common programming languages in the world.

What do the research results show?

We will talk about the most popular programming languages in the world. However, other data of the research are also worth talking about. Therefore, let us briefly summarize these findings first.

DevOps and machine learning, prominent trends in today's software world Languages and structures in these fields are on the rise, and developers working in these fields demand the highest salaries in the industry.

Only a small fraction of developers say they will write unethical code or that they don't have to consider the ethical meaning of the code. The majority among respondents felt that there were too many gray areas ethically. Because they are unsure of how to report ethical issues, and there are many different opinions about who is responsible for unethical codes.

The vast majority of developers are positive about the promises of AI, but there is no consensus on the dangers of AI. Python seems to have surpassed C# as the rising programming language this year. It had surpassed PHP last year as well.

The most popular programming languages

So, which are the most popular programming languages according to the research results? Let's list these languages now and get to know them briefly.

JavaScript (69.8%)

Despite the similarity in name, JavaScript is a different language from Java, allowing developers to create interactive elements on websites. It is listed as the most common language among developers worldwide.

HTML (68.5%)

HTML consists of the abbreviation of "Hyper Text Markup Language". Its Turkish meaning is Rich text markup language. Technically, it is not a programming language, but a markup language, HTML is the backbone of all websites.

CSS (65.1%)

Web sites become visually elegant and features that increase readability are completed using CSS. Selectors of CSS are divided into id and class. It allows formatting tags when using CSS along with selector names defined in HTML tags.

SQL (57.0%)

SQL is a structured query language used to store, manipulate, and retrieve data stored in a relational database. All relational database management systems (RDMS), such as MySQL, MS Access, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Postgres, and SQL Server, use SQL as their standard database language.

Java (45.3%)

Java, which first emerged as a programming language used for interactive television systems in 1991, is widely used, especially without developing Android applications.

Bash/Shell (39.8%)

Bash is a shell, or command language interpreter, for the GNU operating system. It takes its name from the abbreviation of Bourne-Again SHell.

Python (38.8%)

Python's history dates back to 1989, although it has been a growing language in recent times. Developers believe it is a very suitable language for beginners. Python provides flexibility as a language that supports multiple programming paradigms, such as object-oriented programming, functional or structural programming.

C# (34.4%)

C# , which is seen in a rival position with Java, the language developed by Microsoft, was derived from the interaction of two frequently used software languages, C and C++. The outstanding feature of this language is that it is a completely object-oriented programming language prepared for the .Net Framework platform. Objects are already written as classes. Developers just need to drag that object and write the lines of code that will make the object work for the purpose.

PHP (30.7%)

PHP , a web-based, object-oriented programming language, is used to develop websites and applications. Dynamic, self-managed websites can be made with PHP. Since it is an open source programming language, anyone can contribute to its development and it is constantly improved.

The list continues with C++ (25.4%), C (23.0%), TypeScript (17.4%), Ruby (10.1%), Swift (8.1%). Click here to learn more about the research.