Compiled vs Interpreted Languages

Question

What are compiled language and interpreted languages and what is the difference between the two?

Answer 1

Compiled languages are written in a code that can be executed directly on a computer's processor. A compiler is a special program that processes statements written in a particular programming language and turns them into machine language or "code" that a computer's processor uses.

An interpreted language is any programming language that isn't already in "machine code" prior to runtime. Unlike compiled languages , an interpreted language's translation doesn't happen beforehand. Translation occurs at the same time as the program is being executed.

Comments

@allenvarna thank you! Your answer gave me a new definition for complied and interpreted languages.

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Hey @allenvarna. How are these two when it comes to execution time?

Answer 2

A compiled language is one where the program is expressed in the instructions of the target machine, whereas interpreted languages are executed by a platform-dependent software called the interpreter, which converts it to machine-readable code.

Python and Java are interpreted languages, whereas C is a compiled language.

Usually compiled languages are faster since they directly convert code to machine code, interpreted languages are platform-independent and code written in them are executed on the fly bypassing the compilation stage.