[su_dropcap]T[/su_dropcap]here are thousands of programming languages, but some are far more popular than others.
When a company goes out to find new programming talent, they’re looking for people familiar with the languages and systems they already use — even as new languages like Apple Swift start to make a splash.
Here are the programming languages you should learn if you always want to have a job.
Java.
[su_dropcap]O[/su_dropcap]riginally invented in 1991 as a programming language for smart televisions, Oracle’s Java is still the most popular language in the world — a position solidified by the fact that Java is crucial to Android app development and lots of business software.
Programming Java for Beginners – The Ultimate Java Tutorial, $59, available at Udemy.
C.
[su_dropcap]O[/su_dropcap]ne of the oldest programming languages still in common use, C was created in the early 1970s. In 1978, the language’s legendary and still widely read manual, the 800-page “The C Programming Language,” saw print for the first time.
Programming for Complete Beginners in C#, $45, available at Udemy.
C++: From Beginner to Expert, $77, available at Udemy.
Python.
[su_dropcap]T[/su_dropcap]his language traces back to 1989, and is loved by its fans for its highly readable code. Many programmers suggest it’s the easiest language to get started with.
The Ultimate Python Programming Tutorial, $99, available at Udemy.
PHP
[su_dropcap]T[/su_dropcap]his language for programming web sites is incredibly common — some estimates say it powers one-third of the web. Big sites like WordPress, Facebook, and Yahoo use it. A lot of programmers also hate PHP with a passion — Stack Exchange founder Jeff Atwood once wrote, “PHP isn’t so much a language as a random collection of arbitrary stuff, a virtual explosion at the keyword and function factory.”
PHP for Beginners – Become a PHP Master and Make Money Fast, $300, available at Udemy.
Visual Basic.
[su_dropcap]M[/su_dropcap]icrosoft’s Visual Basic (and its successor, Visual Basic .NET) tries to make programming easier with a graphical element that lets you change portions of a program by dragging and dropping. It’s old, and some think it’s lacking features next to other languages, but with Microsoft’s backing, it’s still got its users out there.
Visual Basic .NET Tutorial for Beginners Make App That Sells, $51, available at Udemy.
JavaScript.
[su_dropcap]T[/su_dropcap]his is a super-popular programming language primarily used in web apps. But it doesn’t have much to do with Java besides the name. JavaScript runs a lot of the modern web, but it also catches a lot of flak for slowing browsers down and sometimes exposing users to security vulnerabilities.
JavaScript for Beginners Learn by Doing Practical Exercises, $99, available at Udemy.
Assembly Language.
[su_dropcap]F[/su_dropcap]irst invented in 1949, Assembly is one of the lowest-level ways of talking to a computer’s processor. For a long time, programmers would learn Assembly in computer-science classes, and then never use it again. But it’s handy for building efficient software to run on low-powered machines like smart appliances and wearable computers, so its time has come again.
Assembly Language Adventures: Complete Course, $79, available at Udemy.
Ruby.
[su_dropcap]L[/su_dropcap]ike Python, developers like this 24-year-old language because it’s easy to read and write the code. Also popular is Rails, an add-on framework for Ruby that makes it really easy to use it to build web apps. The language’s official motto is “A programmer’s best friend.”
The Complete Ruby on Rails Developer Course, $300, available at Udemy.
Perl.
[su_dropcap]O[/su_dropcap]riginally developed by a NASA engineer in the late ’80s, Perl excels at processing text, and developers like it because it’s powerful and flexible. It was once famously described as “the duct tape of the web,” because it’s really great at holding websites together, but it’s not the most elegant language.
Perl Programming for Beginners, $99, available at Udemy.
Delphi Object Pascal.
[su_dropcap]O[/su_dropcap]riginally developed at Apple in 1986 and named because it helped programmers connect to Oracle databases (as in, “The Oracle at Delphi”), Delphi is seeing its star rise once again as an alternative for building smartphone apps.
Swift.
[su_dropcap]W[/su_dropcap]hile Apple’s issues with Taylor Swift may have made all the headlines last year, the Apple Swift programming language was winning over developers as a faster, easier way to build iPhone apps. With high-profile fans like IBM, expect it to take off even more in 2016.
iOS 9 and Swift 2: From Beginner to Paid Professional, $199, available at Udemy.
MATLAB.
[su_dropcap]I[/su_dropcap]ntended as a mathematical programming language to help teach university students advanced algebra and image processing, it’s also widely used by scientists, engineers, and programmers working in the exploding field of image processing and other artificial-intelligence applications.
Learn Matlab Programming in Less Than 30 days, $199, available at Udemy.
Pascal.
[su_dropcap]N[/su_dropcap]amed for famed philosopher Blaise Pascal, this language was instrumental in the coding of the original Apple Macintosh computers. There are plenty of Pascal-based systems still out there today.
Learn To Program with Pascal, $149, available at Udemy.
Groovy.
[su_dropcap]T[/su_dropcap]his offshoot of Java has surged in popularity since its 2007 inception, designed to make it easier and faster to write lots of code. And since Groovy integrates just fine with Java code, it’s won over developers at big companies like IBM, Google, and Target.
Objective-C.
[su_dropcap]T[/su_dropcap]he original C programming language was so influential that it inspired a lot of similarly named successors, all of which took their inspiration from the original but added features from other languages. It’s still more popular than Apple’s homegrown Swift language, but Swift is gaining fast.
iOS 9 & Objective-C – Make 20 Applications, $99, available at Udemy.
R.
[su_dropcap]T[/su_dropcap]his is the programming language of choice for statisticians and anybody doing data analysis. Google has gone on record as a big fan of R, for the power it gives to its mathematicians.
