R vs Python Last Updated : 12 Jul, 2025 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report R Programming Language and Python are both used extensively for Data Science. Both are very useful and open-source languages as well. For data analysis, statistical computing, and machine learning Both languages are strong tools with sizable communities and huge libraries for data science jobs. A theoretical comparison between R and Python is provided below:R vs PythonIn this article, we will cover the following topics:R Programming LanguagePython Programming LanguageDifference between R Programming and Python ProgrammingEcosystem in R Programming and Python ProgrammingAdvantages and disadvantages in R Programming and Python ProgrammingR and Python usages in Data ScienceExample in R and PythonR Programming LanguageR Programming Language is used for machine learning algorithms, linear regression, time series, statistical inference, etc. It was designed by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman in 1993. R is an open-source programming language that is widely used as a statistical software and data analysis tool. R generally comes with the Command-line interface. R is available across widely used platforms like Windows, Linux, and macOS. Also, the R programming language is the latest cutting-edge tool.Python Programming LanguagePython is a widely-used general-purpose, high-level programming language. It was created by Guido van Rossum in 1991 and further developed by the Python Software Foundation. It was designed with an emphasis on code readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express their concepts in fewer lines of code.Difference between R Programming and Python ProgrammingBelow are some major differences between R and Python:FeatureRPythonIntroductionR is a language and environment for statistical programming which includes statistical computing and graphics.Python is a general-purpose programming language for data analysis and scientific computingObjectiveIt has many features which are useful for statistical analysis and representation.It can be used to develop GUI applications and web applications as well as with embedded systemsWorkabilityIt has many easy-to-use packages for performing tasksIt can easily perform matrix computation as well as optimizationIntegrated development environmentVarious popular R IDEs are Rstudio, RKward, R commander, etc.Various popular Python IDEs are Spyder, Eclipse+Pydev, Atom, etc.Libraries and packagesThere are many packages and libraries like ggplot2, caret, etc.Some essential packages and libraries are Pandas, Numpy, Scipy, etc.ScopeIt is mainly used for complex data analysis in data science.It takes a more streamlined approach for data science projects.Ecosystem in R Programming and Python ProgrammingPython supports a very large community of general-purpose data science. One of the most basic uses for data analysis, primarily because of the fantastic ecosystem of data-centric Python packages. Pandas and NumPy are one of those packages that make importing and analyzing, and visualization of data much easier.R Programming has a rich ecosystem to use in standard machine learning and data mining techniques. It works in statistical analysis of large datasets, and it offers a number of different options for exploring data and It makes it easier to use probability distributions, apply different statistical tests. R vs PythonFeaturesR PythonData collectionIt is used for data analysts to import data from Excel, CSV, and text files.It is used in all kinds of data formats including SQL tablesData explorationIt optimized for the statistical analysis of large datasetsYou can explore data with PandasData modelingIt supports Tidyverse, making it easy to import, manipulate, visualize, and report on data.You can use NumPy, SciPy, scikit-learn, TansorFlowData visualizationYou can use ggplot2 and ggplot tools to plots complex scatter plots with regression lines.You can use Matplotlib, Pandas, SeabornStatistical Analysis and Machine Learning In R and PythonStatistical analysis and machine learning are critical components of data science, involving the application of statistical methods, models, and techniques to extract insights, identify patterns, and draw meaningful conclusions from data. Both R and Python have widely used programming languages for statistical analysis, each offering a variety of libraries and packages to perform diverse statistical and machine learning tasks. Some comparison of statistical analysis and modeling capabilities in R and Python.CapabilityRPythonBasic StatisticsBuilt-in functions (mean, median, etc.)NumPy (mean, median, etc.)Linear Regressionlm() function and FormulasStatsmodels (OLS)Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) MethodGeneralized Linear Models (GLM)glm() functionStatsmodels (GLM)Time Series AnalysisTime Series packages (forecast)Statsmodels (Time Series)ANOVA and t-testsBuilt-in functions (aov, t.test)SciPy (ANOVA, t-tests)Hypothesis TestsBuilt-in functions (wilcox.test, etc.)SciPy (Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis)Principal Component Analysis (PCA)princomp() functionscikit-learn (PCA)Clustering (K-Means, Hierarchical)kmeans(), hclust()scikit-learn (KMeans, AgglomerativeClustering)Decision Treesrpart() functionscikit-learn (DecisionTreeClassifier)Random ForestrandomForest() functionscikit-learn (RandomForestClassifier)Advantages in R Programming and Python ProgrammingR ProgrammingPython ProgrammingIt supports a large dataset for statistical analysisGeneral-purpose programming to use data analyzePrimary users are Scholar and R&DPrimary users are Programmers and developersSupport packages like tidyverse, ggplot2, caret, zooSupport packages like pandas, scipy, scikit-learn, TensorFlow, caretSupport RStudio and It has a wide range of statistics and general data analysis and visualization capabilities.Support Conda environment with Spyder, Ipython NotebookDisadvantages in R Programming and Python ProgrammingR ProgrammingPython ProgrammingR is much more difficult as compared to Python because it mainly uses for statistics purposes.Python does not have too many libraries for data science as compared to R.R might not be as fast as languages like Python, especially for computationally intensive tasks and large-scale data processing.Python might not be as specialized for statistics and data analysis as R. Some statistical functions and visualization capabilities might be more streamlined in R.Memory management in R might not be as efficient as in some other languages, which can lead to performance issues and memory-related errorsPython visualization capabilities might not be as polished and streamlined as those offered by R's ggplot2.R and Python usages in Data SciencePython and R programming language is most useful in data science and it deals with identifying, representing, and extracting meaningful information from data sources to be used to perform some business logic with these languages. It has a popular package for Data collection, Data exploration, Data modeling, Data visualization, and statical analysis.Example in R and PythonProgram for the addition of two numbers Python # Python program to add two numbers numb1 = 8 numb2 = 4 # Adding two numbers sum = numb1 + numb2 # Printing the result print("The sum is", sum) R # R program to add two numbers numb1 <- 8 numb2 <- 4 # Adding two numbers sum <- numb1 + numb2 print(paste("The sum is", sum)) OutputThe sum is 12 Comment More infoAdvertise with us A achintkaur18 Follow Improve Article Tags : Python Practice Tags : python Similar Reads Python Tutorial - Learn Python Programming Language Python is one of the most popular programming languages. It’s simple to use, packed with features and supported by a wide range of libraries and frameworks. Its clean syntax makes it beginner-friendly. 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