Are you familiar with computer programming? If yes then you will hear the terms of interpreter and compiler there. You will get here details about the difference between Interpreter and Compiler. Well, these two terms are very much confusing for the beginners who have just started to learn to program.
Before knowing the differences you should know the definition and what work they do actually. This content will help you to get your answers and help you to differentiate between Interpreter and Compiler.
The structure of compiler and interpreter is quite different and you will eventually recognize them by following. So, let’s dig into the article to know more.
What is Interpreter in Computer
As we all know that computer only understands the binary code of 0 and 1, that is why it needs to use a third party accompany to understand the language. If you are a computer science student you should know that an interpreter is a computer program that executes your written programming code line by line at a time.
It will convert the code into binary form and computer can understand your command. Here your command is narrated by source code and an interpreter is very smart to execute the command.
If any error is shown on interpreter then you will get an error message from the interpreter. You can fix that problem by going the exact command line easily.
It’s a slower process as it goes through every single line one after another and it requires memory to link one line to another. It’s a one-step process and it’s very simple to execute a program.
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What is Compiler in Computer
It’s a special program that processes statements which are written in a particular programming language. Typically, a programmer writes language statements in a language such as C or C++ one line at a time by using an editor. The compiler turns the programming language into machine language so that computer processor can easily decode them.
The source statements are the file that is created which contains the codes or commands. Every computer programming language has different understanding compiler as they have a different structure. Some of the languages have the same structure and the same compiler to run that program to user interference.
Nothing is more important than running the program which was written in codes in suitable interference. A compiler will do that work for you and will execute the program. The compiler takes a full program at a time and compiles them. This compilation is done before execution.
Examples of Compiler and Interpreter
In programming life, you will feel the necessity of using compiler and interpreter in multiple stages. The uses vary from language to language. So you should know the examples for the compiler and interpreter for different languages.
Examples of Interpreter
- Python
- Ruby
- PHP
Examples of Compiler
- C
- C++
- GO
These are the popular programming languages that use compiler and interpreter.
Similarities between Compiler and Interpreter
Yes, there are some similarities between compiler and interpreter. Now we will discuss the similarities here in bullet points. Let’s check out the points to find the similarities.
- Both compiler and interpreter translate source code for machine understanding so that your device can follow your command.
- The compiler and the interpreter use memory to store data.
- Interpreter and Compiler are the high-level languages.
- Java language uses both the compiler and the interpreter.
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Advantages of Compiler over Interpreter
As you know an interpreter will read code by character and determine what to do. After that, it will perform whatever command it receives. If you run it next time, then it will go through the same process.
On the other hand, a compiler will read the whole source code and will run a program. The compiler has some advantages over interpreter. Let’s see them shortly.
Compilers advantages
Here only the developer needs to compile the code when to run a program while the end users need not do that.
As compiling is a onetime process, the developers try to optimize the program so that the output gets faster loading time.
Where interpreters only translate the line by line commands, the compiler translates the whole program to machine understanding. You will get also the advantages of Computer and Disadvantages of Computer.
The compiler is suitable for global optimization where the interpreter is not like that. The compiler can emerge the code and show you an error and sometimes it will help you to fix the error quickly.
Interpreter Vs Compiler
Though Interpreter and compiler have similarities among them, there are some differences too. As you know some of the languages use the compiler and some use interpreter. You can view this comparison table for better understanding of the difference between compiler and interpreter. Let’s see the comparison table below.
Short Summaries of the difference between Interpreter and Compiler
| COMPILER | INTERPRETER |
|---|---|
| 1. It translates the full source code at a time. | 1. It translates one line of code at a time. |
| 1. It translates one line of code at a time. | 2. Comparatively slower. |
| 3. It uses more memory to perform. | 3. The interpreter uses less memory than the compiler to perform. |
| 4. Error detection is difficult for the compiler. | 4. Error detection is easier for the interpreter. |
| 5. It shows error alert after scanning the full program. | 5. Whenever it finds any error it stops there. |
| 6. Before execution of a program, the compilation is done. | 6. Compilation and execution for a program are done simultaneously. |
Hope that you have understood the basic differences of the interpreter and the compiler. Two of them are very important for certain languages.
Have you ever thought without these programs we would not ever test our software? They have similarities and differences also and these make them suitable for various programming language. Programming languages are meant for commanding computers and machines.
Try to learn one programming language at least in this high tech world. Python is the language that uses both compiler and the interpreter.
So, it will be beneficial for you to learn a computer programming language to build new programs. I think you have got details about the difference between Interpreter and Compiler.
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