Top 100 Programming Languages

When we decided to compile the top 100 programming languages ​​in existence, we had a sneaking suspicion that we were embarking on a Herculean task. While most software engineers around the world work primarily in the same 20 or so languages, there are many more – and there are people out there using them!

So providing an overview of this enormous landscape can be daunting, as we quickly discovered. How to categorize the top 100 programming languages? Is there some kind of hierarchy? How to decide the criteria to classify them all?

Here we will take a look at the top 100 programming languages ​​in no particular order. Continue reading to better understand our criteria.

Now that we've got all that out of the way, let's dive into this overview, where we'll look at what each programming language is about and why you should consider using them.

Top 50 Essential Programming Languages

1.C

Many people see C as the most influential programming language of all time. It's hard to argue with that, given how fundamental C has been to C++, C#, Objective C, Java, Python, JavaScript, and many other languages ​​you'll find below. All of these languages ​​borrowed many basic features from C (especially its control structures). C was the first language to work at a higher level, opening doors to developing complex software with significantly less knowledge.

Fundamental to the reimplementation of Unix since its 4th version, C enjoys justified popularity, thanks to its almost infinite possibilities. This general-purpose language is often used to build operating systems, language compilers and interpreters, drivers, and utilities.

2.Java

Java frequently appears at the top of programming language rankings thanks to its enormous popularity, rooted primarily in one thing: its “write once, run anywhere” (WORA) principle: any compiled Java code can run on any platform it uses. support Java without having to recompile it first. This is possible thanks to the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), which runs in a virtual machine to provide cross-platform capabilities.

Combined with the fact that Java is a general-purpose language, this makes it perfect for virtually any development project. In fact, Java is used for many things, from Android apps and web apps to games, big data tools, and even scientific platforms.

3. Phyton

Many beginners who go online to ask which programming language they should learn first hear Python as the first answer. This is because the language has a strong emphasis on code readability, ease of use, and flexibility. All of this means that beginners can quickly learn and start working on almost any application they can imagine.

Although Python can be used to build everything from business applications to games, there are some strengths to it. On the one hand, the language is often used for data analysis, scripting, and scientific research, mainly because it includes a robust set of tools for this. But Python is also great for web app development and even creating AI-based apps.

4. C++

A successor to C, the idea behind the development of C++ was to add higher-level paradigms to C, but also maintain the low-level qualities present in it. Since its inception, C++ has evolved greatly to include object-oriented, generic, and functional features. C++ is a compiled language that has several compilers to work on different platforms, thus expanding its usability.

Given its predecessor, C++ has remarkable computational performance, which is why it is mainly used for systems programming and embedded systems. Thus, it is often used to create device drivers, game engines, imaging and audio software, telecommunications networks, and interpreters.

5. C#

Just like C++, C# is another programming language built on top of C, where the main addition was object-oriented features. C# is closely related to Microsoft's .NET framework, as it was initially developed by the Redmond giant as part of its .NET initiative and has now become the main language for .NET programming.

C# is another language that can be used to build almost anything you can imagine, but it is perfectly suited to building Windows desktop applications and games. Additionally, you can use it to create web apps as well as mobile apps that can later be used on virtually any mobile device through cross-platform tools like Xamarin.

6. JavaScript

JavaScript has been a fundamental part of our daily lives for some time now, simply because it is one of the essential pillars of most websites (along with HTML and CSS). Through JavaScript, web pages can dynamically apply style changes, animate menus, validate data entered into a form without refreshing, and more. Javascript also works for web and mobile application development, as well as server applications and games.

Most modern websites use JavaScript in one way or another to control the behavior of client-side pages. And although it is primarily a programming language for front-end development, it can also be used server-side (with Node.js).

7.PHP

Speaking of server-side, here comes PHP, probably the most popular programming language designed for server-side development. This general-purpose scripting language can collect data from online forms, create dynamic elements for web pages, or manipulate cookies. Although that is its main purpose, PHP can do more than that.

For example, PHP is great for command line scripts to create scripts that only need a PHP parser to run, something interesting for simple processing tasks. PHP can also be used to create desktop applications, although you need to really know your way around it to do so. Mastering the language is not a utopia, as the language has a gentle learning curve, which makes it a great option for any beginner in the world of programming.

8. VB.NET

Although many .NET developers now prefer C# for .NET programming, Visual Basic still remains a very popular option for doing this as well. This object-oriented, multi-paradigm language is the successor to the original Visual Basic, but it offers much more, especially because it provides full access to .NET libraries, but also because it is easy to understand, reliable, and highly scalable. .

Because VB.NET relies on the .NET framework, you can use this language to quickly create a wide variety of Windows and Office applications, as well as web and mobile applications.

9.R

With the rise of data science and statistical software, it's only natural that a language as focused as R will grow through the development ranks. Thanks to its wide range of libraries, R can implement diverse statistical and graphical techniques, such as linear and nonlinear modeling, classification, clustering, and many others.

This nature is the main reason why statisticians and data miners use it to build statistical analyzes and create high-quality data visualizations. In fact, R is one of the most popular alternatives to the big data phenomenon, especially because it is highly expandable through the various packages available for it.

10.SQL

Databases are an integral part of our technology-driven world – and SQL is among the most popular languages ​​used to communicate with them. SQL stands for Structured Query Language and allows developers to create databases with its structures and handle all the data-related tasks that come with it, such as insertion, editing, and querying.

SQL's popularity is related to the way it gives engineers the ability to use a conventional language to deal with relational databases in new IT environments, such as cloud-native systems and virtual networks. Thus, SQL is often a standard tool for dealing with data contained in a conventional database.

11. Go

Also known as Golang, Go is a programming language designed by Google that is halfway between C and C++. In fact, it is syntactically similar to C, but more sophisticated due to the inclusion of features like garbage collection and structural typing. This brings it closer to C++, although without the complexities of this programming language.

Originally created for systems programming, Go has evolved and is now used for web applications, cloud-based platforms, containerization tools, and even certain systems within cryptocurrencies. This makes it a great alternative for experienced developers, although its ease of use will also appeal to beginners.

12. Fast

If you are interested in developing apps for any Apple device, you will need to learn Swift. This programming language was developed by the Cupertino company for iOS, OS X, watchOS, tvOS and Linux development. It is mainly inspired by C and Objective-C and C, but has extended compatibility.

This allows it to work seamlessly with Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, Apple's own frameworks, as well as any existing Objective-C code developed for Apple systems. In addition to the fact that it is Apple's programming language for creating apps, it is also a high-performance, general-purpose language that focuses on security and (naturally) software design.

13. Pearl

Often called “the Swiss Army Knife” of scripting, Perl has been around for nearly four decades – and it's still going strong. This dynamic, interpreted, high-level language can run on more than 100 platforms and is ideal for both prototyping and large development projects. In fact, Perl has gone beyond its initial purpose (text editing) and is now used for many things, including Linux system administration, network programming, and web development, among others.

It's important to note that Perl sometimes refers to a family of languages, a term that includes Raku (previously called Perl 6). However, Raku is now a programming language with its own development team and schedule and the original Perl team continues to work on its development.

14. Assembly language

Assembly language is the most fundamental programming language there is, as it is a low-level language. This basically means that this language has little to no abstraction from the computer architecture itself (meaning that the language's functions are as close to the processor's instructions as possible). This is why it is also known as symbolic machine code.

Assembly code is converted into machine code using a processor called an assembler, which executes the resulting code on the processor. Since assembly depends on the machine's own instructions, each assembler has its own language, specific to that specific computer architecture. There is some debate about the value of assembly language in the modern setting, but it has proven value in speed or size optimization, in driver development, or in cases where there are strict time constraints such as real-time simulators.

15. Ruby

According to its own official website, “Ruby is a language of careful balance.” They can certainly claim this, as the language combines parts of Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada and Lisp to arrive at a balanced mix between functional and imperative programming. This high-level, general-purpose, interpreted programming language is highly flexible as developers can remove or redefine any part of Ruby.

Ruby is mainly used for web application development, especially because of Ruby on Rails, a very popular development framework that provides an MVC (Model View Controller) architecture and encourages the use of web standards. The uses of Ruby don't stop there, as it can also be used for data analysis, prototyping and proof of concepts.

16. MATLAB

MATLAB is another programming language designed with engineers and scientists in mind. It runs on the proprietary platform of the same name and is a matrix-based language that allows developers to express complex computational mathematics in the most natural way. So you can work with matrix manipulations, data implementations and function plotting.

All of this makes MATLAB the perfect ally for anyone looking to analyze data, develop algorithms and create mathematical models and applications. In the MATLAB environment, you will find easy-to-use computation and visualization tools that can provide complex results through familiar mathematical notation.

17. Classic Basic Look

As incredible as it may seem, the TIOBE Index still ranks Classic Visual Basic among its top 20 programming languages. This is really strange since the programming language was declared legacy by Microsoft in 2008. However, it seems that there are many developers out there who still use it to keep the necessary legacy systems running.

Visual Basic used to be a good way to create Microsoft-centric applications using the components provided by their platform (especially after the VB community started developing their own components). However, today it is only worth learning for developers who already know other languages ​​and need it for a very specific project. We hope the Classic VB goes away in the next few years, but hey, we still include it out of respect.

18. Apache Groovy

This is a relatively new object-oriented language that supports Java syntax and runs on the Java platform. In some ways, you could say that Apache Groovy is similar to Python, Ruby, and Smalltalk, especially because it is considered a static and dynamic language. What's more, because your code is compiled through the Java Virtual Machine, it can interoperate with other Java codes and libraries, which expands its power.

Among its most powerful features are scripting capabilities, domain-specific language creation, metaprogramming, and functional programming. All of this can allow us to see it as a “Java enhancer” that provides more flexibility and power to Java developers. Thus, any Java project can be tweaked through Apache Groovy to increase its performance.

19. Objective-C

Another high-level programming language based on C, Objective-C went a little further by adding features and syntax from Smalltalk. Thus, we can say that it is a superset of C, since any C code can run perfectly on an Objective-C compiler. Objective-C was initially developed as a way to add object-oriented programming to C, but it has now taken on a life of its own.

Thanks to its capabilities, Objective-C was the main language for developing Mac OSX and iOS applications (in fact, you needed to learn it to create any application for these systems). With Apple's introduction of Swift, Objective-C is no longer the only alternative, although it is still an interesting option.

20. Rust

If you regularly check Stack Overflow's developer surveys , you've certainly come across Rust at some point, particularly in the “most loved programming language” section. That's because this multi-paradigm programming language is mainly focused on performance and security. Rust has a very strict compiler that checks all variables and memory addresses, which leads you to write more effective and idiomatic programs.

Developers fell in love with Rust because of its speed, memory safety, and parallelism. All of this allows engineers to work on a wide range of applications, from game engines and operating systems to browser components and file systems.

Classic, emerging and niche languages

21. SAS

It is a specialized programming language whose main objective is to perform statistical analysis of data with databases and spreadsheets. SAS compiles data, analyzes it, and provides output through a variety of visualization options or text/web documents. It is mainly used in academia and government, given the level of control and freedom it offers in handling large data loads.

22. Scratching

Getting children interested in programming has become a strategic objective for governments, academics and companies. This is why a programming language like Scratch is so important – it is a free, Smalltalk-based visual programming language aimed at children aged 8 to 16 to educate them in basic programming terms and teach them about reasoning. systematic as they create stories, games and animations.

23.D

D is a programming language designed to overcome the disadvantages of C (just as C was designed to sophisticate B's offering). D is basically like C++ in the sense that it is object-oriented, but unlike it, it is not backwards compatible, which helps remove the disadvantages present in C++.

24. Dart

Dart is another Google-designed language that the company has used internally to create web, server, and mobile applications. In some ways, Dart compiles source code in the same way as JavaScript, although the code has its own Dart virtual machine. Although it's been around for a while, Dart is just starting to get the attention it deserves, especially since Google introduced Flutter for native Android development — and developers who want to work with it need Dart to get started.

25.PL/SQL

SQL alone won't get you very far when working with databases. That's why you need a language like PL/SQL, a procedural language that is a superset of SQL. It builds on SQL, adding procedural programming features, including basic concepts like conditionals, loops, functions, objects, types, and more. Because it was created by Oracle, it works perfectly with their databases.

26. Logo

Developers of a certain age certainly remember Logo, one of the first programming languages ​​to teach kids how to code. Many of us learned how to write code on a console by giving commands to a little turtle that drew graphics. For some people, Logo is Lisp for kids, even when it has powerful features for creating images, multimedia presentations, and games.

27. Delphi

Also known as Object Pascal, Delphi is a programming language and IDE for rapid application development. In fact, Delphi was designed as the successor to Turbo Pascal, a language already known for its fast compilation times. Delphi, however, has added fully object-oriented programming to this foundation to become a fantastic alternative for desktop, mobile, web, and console software development.

28. COBOL

Common Business-Oriented Language or COBOL as we all know it, is one of the first high-level programming languages ​​that still exists today. This imperative, procedural, object-oriented language is still active primarily to maintain and support existing business, financial, and administrative systems. It's highly likely that COBOL (like Visual Basic) is reaching its final days, but it still has things to offer, especially surprising mainframe processing speed.

29. Kotlin

One of the rising stars in the software development sky, Kotlin is a cross-platform, general-purpose programming language that is Google's preferred language for Android development. This certainly increased its popularity, but its benefits also played an important role. Kotlin is like a more concise version of Java, it is highly interoperable with it, has many features, is easy to learn and is less error prone.

30. OpenEdge ABL

This is a fourth generation programming language for business applications that offers a high level of abstraction. In fact, the goal of OpenEdge ABL is to be extremely easy to use, providing everything a developer needs for rapid application development. That's why this language is perfect for prototyping and creating systems with simple interfaces.

31. Julia

Another young language that is growing in popularity, Julia is a high-level, dynamic programming language. It can work well for a wide variety of projects, but most of its features are better suited to computer science. Additionally, Julia includes libraries for linear algebra, regular expression matching, and floating point calculations, which makes it obvious that it is a great choice for developers working with numerical analysis.

32. ABAP

The Advanced Business Application Programming language (or ABAP for short) is a crucial language for creating enterprise tools, applications, and systems, or SAP software (named after the company that created ABAP in the first place).

33. Scale

Some people say that Scala is like a revamped version of Java – and they might be right. This is because Scala is also object-oriented, compiles to Java bytecode to run on the JVM and is even interoperable with Java, which means it can use its libraries. The difference from Java is that Scala incorporates functional programming features, is more concise, and has an easier-to-read syntax.

34. Transact SQL

Also known as T-SQL, Transact-SQL is an extension to SQL developed by Microsoft and Sybase that is used to interact with relational databases. As such, T-SQL is fundamental for developers using Microsoft SQL Server, the database management system created by the Redmond giant. All communications with this system are carried out using T-SQL instructions, which explains why this language is popular among certain users – it is practically mandatory!

35. Scheme

Some people might say that Scheme is just a Lisp dialect, but for us, it's a little more than that. It's true that Scheme may be a very minimalist adaptation of Lisp with a small core and a set of interesting tools. However, this economic approach can also be its strong point. In fact, many educators believe this and some engineers see Scheme as the best possible ally for developing embedded systems and scripting.

36. Prologue

Prolog is a very different language from the previous ones, mainly because it is a logical programming language. This means that, unlike many other languages ​​that use procedural logic, Prolog is more about first-order logic, where the underlying logic of a program is expressed in various relations of facts and rules. Thus, the software works by interpreting queries according to these relationships. This approach is the reason why Prolog is mainly associated with artificial intelligence and NPL projects.

37. Ada

Ada Lovelace (also known as The Number Enchantress) is considered by many people to be the creator of the first computer program. Whether this is true or not, The Enchantress certainly inspired a group of French developers who created Ada, a high-level object-oriented programming language extended from Pascal. It may not be the most popular language out there, but the French team that created it wasn't aiming for popularity, but rather security – especially since the language was commissioned by the US Department of Defense, which is where it finds most of its uses.

38. Lisp

We've mentioned some of its descendants before, so it's about time we talk about Lisp, one of the oldest high-level programming languages ​​still in use. In reality, the name Lisp points to a family of programming languages ​​that share the same roots – the pioneering ideas that Lisp brought to life, such as tree data structures, dynamic typing, recursion, and higher-order functions, to name a few. It has been used for many things over the years, but its relevance today is explained by many AI and machine learning developers adopting it as their language of choice.

39. Apex

Another proprietary programming language, Apex, is used by Salesforce to execute flow and transaction control statements and API calls on Salesforce servers. It is an object-oriented language similar to Java and C# that allows Salesforce developers to add business logic to many system-related events. So the software engineers who use it do so purely for what Apex can offer in Salesforce.

40. Moon

Originally conceived as a language that sought to extend software applications for greater customization, Lua remains one of the best languages ​​for this purpose. That's because it's a lightweight, high-level language that focuses on speed, portability, and ease of use. One of the best things about Lua is that it is cross-platform, which expands its range of use.

41. Fortran

It's almost ridiculous to think that a language that first appeared in 1957 could exist today, more than 60 years later, and still be relevant. However, this is precisely what happens with Fortran, a general-purpose imperative language developed by IBM with a strong focus on numerical computing and scientific computing. The secret to its relevance and popularity is that Fortran's fundamentals are so robust that no other language can show similar performance on computationally intensive tasks such as computational fluid dynamics, geophysics, and finite element analysis. All of this explains why Fortran is also used to create benchmarking programs.

42. Haskell

Another language widely known for the various languages ​​that use it as a base, Haskell is another general-purpose, multi-paradigm and purely functional language. The “purely functional” part means that Haskell functions depend only on their arguments, regardless of their global or local states. This makes it easier to understand, which is why Haskel is primarily used for academic reasons (although it also has industry-wide use).

43. Hack

This may not be the most popular language, but Hack was developed by Facebook as a way to extend PHP by introducing static typing, new type hints, and improving the use of type hints. In this sense, Hack is a PHP implementation that allows developers to use dynamic and static typing through a system called gradual typing.

44. VBScript

Another proprietary language created by Microsoft based on Visual Basic, VBScript was the company's alternative to JavaScript for web developers. Naturally, the dominance of JavaScript left it without much space, so this scripting language found a niche in the development of applications and systems within Microsoft environments. Thus, VBScript is used by system administrators, unit testers, embedded application developers, and macro development for Microsoft applications.

45. Visual FoxPro

Although Microsoft released its final version in 2007, Visual FoxPro still has an active community that still views the language as a valuable resource for developing database applications. It's true that you won't find many new applications that use Visual FoxPro as their language of choice, but there are many legacy platforms available written in it that work well and need to be maintained.

46. ​​Typescript

Microsoft adds another language to this list with TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript that adds optional static typing to the language. This means that any existing application written in JavaScript can be worked on using this programming language. The idea behind the development of this language is to provide developers with the ability to build JavaScript applications to run on the client and server, as well as enable the development of large applications.

47. AWK

Here is another language developed in the 70s that still exists. AWK is a domain-specific language that consists of a set of actions performed on streams of text. Your goal is to process these texts to extract information or transform them into a different output. This makes AWK a fairly limited programming language, but it's a great addition to any toolkit, especially for those working with large amounts of text.

48. ActionScript

The TIOBE Index shows that there is still some interest in ActionScript, a programming language that you could say is another superset of JavaScript. And this is surprising, especially since the purpose of ActionScript was the development of websites and software with Adobe Flash Player components. As you may remember, Flash was a crucial element of the web some time ago, as it provided animations and interactive elements that couldn't be done any other way. However, with the arrival of HTML5, Flash fell out of favor and is now practically shunned. Basically, all of this means that ActionScript is another one of those languages ​​that will disappear sooner or later.

49. Tcl

Pronounced as “tickling”, Tcl is a high-level, general-purpose language that is as simple as possible. In this language, everything is a command, even control structures like “for” and “if”. This means that a developer can tweak pretty much anything they want through various commands, giving them a lot of power and flexibility. These features have made Tcl an ally for developers working on rapid prototyping, scripted applications, and testing.

50. Small talk

Smalltalk is a very influential programming language that helped shape the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern for user interface design and ushered in a new era in GUIs. However, even with all its fundamental relevance, Smalltalk has been gradually abandoned by most developers and is only used by a small community that believes in it. A significant reason why Smalltalk is used today is the release of development frameworks for it, especially Seaside, a framework that makes it easier to create web applications.

50 Other Languages ​​Worth Mentioning

In addition to all the programming languages ​​mentioned above (from the well-known to the classics to the newcomers to the almost lost ones), there are many other languages ​​out there worth knowing. Of course, they may not have the biggest communities, a wide range of applications, or the biggest brands that invest in them. However, they have interesting things for you, which is why we include them here.

51. ABC

A general-purpose programming language and IDE, ABC is an alternative to BASIC, Pascal, or AWK, designed for teaching and prototyping. ABC was highly influential in the design of Python.

52. Alice

A dialect of Standard ML, this visual programming language uses 3D objects and point-and-click logic to teach basic programming concepts to new students and children.

53. APL

APL stands for “A Programming Language”, but don’t let the simplicity of the name fool you. APL is one of the most peculiar languages ​​on the market, mainly because it uses a wide range of special graphic symbols for its functions and operators. Today, it is mainly used for commercial and scientific purposes.

54. AutoLISP

Another member of the Lisp family, AutoLISP is a dialect of this language developed specifically to work on AutoCAD and several of its derivative platforms. That's why it's almost exclusively focused on geometry.

55. Bash

Bash (or Bourne Again Shell) is an sh-compatible command language that runs in a window where the user enters commands to perform actions. Since its release, it has been used as the default login shell for most Linux distributions.

56. BC

bc stands for “basic calculator” (or “bench calculator,” depending on who you ask) and is an arbitrary-precision calculator language used for mathematical scripts, as its calculations are performed with numbers whose digits of precision are limited only by available memory.

57. Bourne Shell

Remember how Bash stood for “Bourne Again Shell”? This is the Bourne shell in which this pun resides. This means it is very similar to Bash in that it interprets and executes commands and provides programming skills based on them.

58. Concha C

Here is another shell, which means the C shell also runs in a window and executes user commands. The main difference is that the C shell is easier and faster to use, thanks to the language's style, which is reminiscent of C, making it more readable.

59. Clipper

Clipper is a compiler that works to extend software that was originally created to run on MS-DOS through xBase variants. A very powerful general-purpose programming language used primarily for databases and business programs.

60. Clojure

Clojure is another general-purpose programming language that combines the approach of scripting languages ​​with a solid infrastructure for multithreaded programming. A dialect of Lisp, its popularity has been rising in recent years thanks to its use in creative computing and advocacy by several thought leaders.

61. CaféScript

The main rule of CoffeeScript is “it's just JavaScript” (which may seem strange, because it's not exactly JavaScript). This means that CoffeeScript is a small language that compiles to JavaScript and seeks to speed up code while getting rid of runtime interpretation.

62. Common Lisp

Yet another dialect of Lisp, Common Lisp is an improvement over its successor, Maclisp. The goal of Common Lisp was to unify and standardize different Maclisp dialects into a general-purpose programming language that combined procedural, functional, and object-oriented paradigms.

63. Crystal

A general-purpose object-oriented language, Crystal was inspired by Ruby and developed to take its productivity and combine it with the speed and efficiency of compiled languages. Thus, it is a good alternative for Ruby developers looking for greater performance.

64. CT

This is an algorithmic language similar to C, Fortran and Pascal, but with a stronger focus on multimedia. Thus, cT includes greater support for color graphics, mouse interactions, and video. It was a good alternative for developing multimedia programs on different platforms, but it was left aside in favor of VPython.

65. Elixir

Elixir is a general-purpose language that runs on BEAM, Erlang's virtual machine. This is because Elixir is based on Erlang and has the same abstractions. The difference is that Elixir offers more productive tools and extensible design.

66. Emacs Lisp

As you may have guessed, Emacs Lisp is a Lisp dialect used as a scripting language for Emacs, a text editor. In some ways, Emacs Lisp is close to Maclisp and even shows some influence from Common Lisp, which is why it is used to customize and extend Emacs.

67. Erlang

Erlang is a general-purpose language originally created to develop telecommunications applications, but is now used as a way to build concurrent applications. With this functional and highly scalable language, you can create telecommunications tools, web applications, distributed computing and any other solution that requires handling multiple simultaneous inputs.

68. Euphoria

Euphoria is a general-purpose imperative procedural language that focuses on simplicity, readability, and rapid development. This allows Euphoria to easily handle dynamic sets of data, which is why it is used for string and image processing, artificial intelligence, and mathematical studies.

69. F#

This general-purpose cross-platform language was created by Microsoft with efficiency as its main objective. After reaching open source status, F# has gained some popularity and you can now use it for enterprise programming, data science, machine learning, cloud computing, mathematics and statistics, and other related fields.

70. Forward

It is a procedural language without type checking that features interactive command execution and offers the possibility of compiling sequences of commands for later use. Forth is mainly used in embedded systems that require interaction with hardware.

71. Genius

Genie is a relatively new high-level language that was developed as an alternative to the Vala compiler in search of a simpler, cleaner dialect. In fact, you can say that Genie and Vala are very similar, as their only differences are in syntax. Thus, Genie is closer to modern languages ​​like Python and Delphi.

72. Icon

Labeled as “a high-level language” by some people, Icon is focused on making string and structure processing easier while providing high-level graphical possibilities. The syntax is extremely easy to use due to its level of abstraction, which makes it perfect for creating short, concise programs in the areas of text analysis, document formatting, and data washing.

73. IDL

Standing for Interactive Data Language, IDL is a language primarily focused on data analysis and visualization. It shares syntax with PV-Wave and is a niche language as it is primarily used in astronomy, atmospheric physics, and medical imaging.

74. Inform

Inform is a peculiar language that fuels interactive works of fiction. It's a procedural, object-oriented language that provides the structures needed to create objects that you can combine to create the narrative of your stories.

75. I

Io is an object-oriented language partially inspired by Smalltalk, Lua and Lisp. Its philosophy is to explore conceptual unification and dynamic languages, which is why Io is more about simplicity and flexibility than performance.

76. Corn Husk

Here is another Unix shell that is based on the Bourne shell, but also includes features from the C shell. Thus, the Korn shell is a combination of the two most popular shells and also the easiest to use, which is why newcomers tend to use it. it, especially in commercial environments.

77. LabVIEW

LabVIEW is a graphical data flow language, which means you build applications by grouping together a set of routines represented by images. It is designed to interface with measurement and control devices through simple code, which allows you to build complex tools without needing to write a single line.

78. Ladder logic

The name “Ladder Logic” was once used to refer to a method of documenting the design and construction of relay racks through interconnected symbols. This principle evolved into this language, which presents an application with a graphical diagram. This is why Ladder Logic is mainly used in industrial control applications.

79. Live Code

LiveCode is a natural expressive language with a strong focus on readability. Its developers promise that you will write up to 90% less code with it, thanks to its object-oriented, English-like nature. That doesn't mean it's not powerful, as LiveCode has been used to create AI, big data, and cryptography applications.

80. Maple

Maple is a symbolic and numeric environment and a multi-paradigm language. Through it, you can design powerful applications capable of dealing with symbolic mathematics, numerical analysis, data processing and visualization, among others.

81. Mercury

This is a functional logic language that has purely declarative logic. In this sense, Mercury is related to Prolog and Haskell, and in fact can be seen as a subset of the former, albeit with strong types and modes.

82. ML

ML stands for “Meta Language”, a name that indicates its main focus – research in programming languages. This is possible thanks to the use of the Hindley-Milner type system, which automatically assigns types without requiring explicit annotations while ensuring type safety.

83. MQL4

MQL4 is a high-level object-oriented language based on C++ and with a strong focus on flexibility. This is what allows you to develop complex programs with a large number of calculations. This, in combination with built-in functions for managing trading orders, is what explains why this language is mainly used for trading robots, indicators, scripts and libraries for the MetaTrader 4 platform.

84. NATURAL

NATURAL is another fourth-generation proprietary language that is structured and less procedural than other conventional languages. It creates its programs in the system of the same name and can execute them both interpretively and executed as compiled objects. It was developed to work with Adabas, a still widely used database package.

85. NXT-G

This is another graphical programming language that was built for programming with the LEGO Mindstorms NXT robotics kit. Through a drag-and-drop environment, you can organize functional blocks and “sequence bundles” to control program flow. It's a good way to introduce programming to children and even newcomers to the field of robotics because it can manage components beyond those made from LEGO.

86. OpenCL

Some may say that OpenCL is a framework and not a language, but we maintain the TIOBE Index selection. Through it, it is possible to create programs that can be executed on different platforms made up of CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, FPGAs and other processors and accelerators. It provides a standard interface for parallel computing from accelerators found in cloud servers, mobile devices, embedded platforms, and more.

87. Ounce

A multi-paradigm language, Oz is primarily used to teach programming. It contains most of the aspects found in the most popular programming paradigms such as logical, functional, imperative, object-oriented, and concurrent programming. This, combined with its simple semantics, makes Oz a great educational alternative.

88. PL/I

PL/I or Programming Language One is another legacy language that has become niche. Designed for scientific, engineering, business, and systems programming, this imperative, procedural language is now only used to maintain old systems or convert them to run on new hardware.

89. PostScript

A highly specialized language, PostScript is a page description language intended to describe graphics and page layouts. Therefore, it is mainly used for visual output: printing, font design, desktop GUIs, and individual images. Because PostScript describes elements in a resolution-independent manner (making it highly scalable), it is in the fields of data publishing and visualization that it finds greatest use.

90.Q

Q is another proprietary language that was designed for array processing and to serve as a query language for kdb+, a column-based database. This database, in turn, is based on the k language, of which Q is a variation with a more readable interface.

91. Racket

Racket is a general-purpose language based on Scheme and primarily focused on the design and implementation of programming languages ​​(although it can also be used for scripting, research, and educational purposes). The language is part of a platform of the same name, which includes a runtime system, libraries and a JIT compiler.

92. Red

Red was initially developed as a way to improve Rebol, but with the ultimate goal of becoming a full-stack language. Thus, Red is imperative and functional and can be used for high- and low-level programming through its two main components: Red/System and Red.

93. Ring

Ring puts innovation at the forefront of its logic. This general-purpose language supports many programming paradigms, including imperative, procedural, object-oriented, declarative, functional, meta, and natural programming. Simple and fast, Ring can be used in a variety of projects, from web development to game development.

94. RPG

RPG (Report Program Generator) is a high-level language developed by IBM that originally served as an alternative to the punched card processing system in the IBM 1401. Today, it has evolved into a COBOL-like language that serves many companies to create applications in the IBM's iSeries minicomputer system.

95. S.

The predecessor of R,S is a high-level language for data manipulation and analysis. Highly extensible, S is a functional system that treats user-written functions as first-class system-like objects. Its code is readable and the language is quite easy to understand, which is why it is used for statistical and graphical analyzes in large applications.

96. SPARK

A variation of Ada, SPARK is a formally defined language whose primary purpose is software development for high-profile safety-critical systems, such as those used in aviation and space applications. To ensure the security of your solution, you can use your contracts to dynamically verify the specification of your components.

97. Statistics

Stata is more than a language – it is a pair of powerful languages ​​brought together in a platform designed to support statistical analysis and specialized research. Through it, you can solve complex statistical problems and produce tables, graphs and simulations. Both languages ​​are great for writing scripts and manipulating data.

98. Vale

As we mentioned before, Vala and Genie are quite similar. Vala is an object-oriented language that generates C code and is syntactically similar to C#. This way, anything you create with Vala should perform similarly to anything you can create in C, albeit with the advantage of being easier to write and maintain.

99. Verilog

This is a hardware description language (HDL), a special type of language that describes the structure of electronic and digital logic circuits. Basically, this means that Verilog is used to design computer chips and digital circuits in general.

100. VHDL

Another hardware description language, VHDL, is another popular alternative for people involved in designing CPUs, motherboards, FPGAs, and many other types of digital circuits. VHDL can also work to simulate and test the performance of all projects.

How We Came Up With This List

We had to make several compromises. The first and most important is that we would not adhere to the hierarchical order. In other words, we will list the top 100 programming languages ​​in no particular order which means that just because we discuss C first does not mean it is better than Java or Python.

So we decided to use the TIOBE Index to define which programming languages ​​were eliminated (we know there are more programming languages, but we had to draw the line somewhere). In case you don't know, the TIOBE Index is a well-known programming language index that ranks languages ​​according to their popularity. You can learn more about it through this link .

Finally, we had to agree on what a programming language actually is. First we agree to use Wikipedia's definition :

“ A programming language is a formal language that comprises a set of instructions that produce various types of output. Programming languages ​​are used in computer programming to implement algorithms. ”

We add to this a rule in the TIOBE Index: they only take into account languages ​​that areTuring complete . Since this made sense to us, we decided to use it too. It is highly likely that we will not lose any of the world's top 100 languages ​​after these commitments. We are 100% sure we will cover the essentials and why they are seen as such.

The fascinating world of programming languages

All of the above is a window into how varied and diverse the programming landscape can become – and that's considering just a few of the programming languages ​​out there! There are many more of them out there, from general purpose ones to highly specialized ones. Naturally, the world of programming doesn't end with languages ​​– there are frameworks, libraries, IDEs and many other components that make things even more complex.

But that's part of the charm of the countryside, isn't it? The possibilities are endless, so there are many paths to choose from, each with its own set of pros and cons. It's up to you which one you choose to become the type of developer you want to be.

That said, it's also important to note that for us, these programming languages ​​are some of the paths you should consider first (especially when we talk about the top 20 programming languages). This is because they will provide you with solid foundations to advance your career. Then, you can move into the niche of your choice and diversify wherever your heart desires.