JavaScript and JQuery are two of the popular languages, but programmers still find it difficult to select one of them when developing a website. There are also developers who don’t know the exact difference between the two when asked to select someone. You might be surprised to know that JQuery and JavaScript are identical and that JQuery is just a set of JavaScript libraries that can be used to simplify HTML document, event handling, Ajax interaction and animation.
- Introduction to JavaScript
- Introduction to JQuery
- Difference between JavaScript and JQuery
- Which should be Used JavaScript or JQuery?
In this article we are going to discuss JavaScript and JQuery, however, in order to use JQuery, you should know JavaScript. We will also discuss which is the better one to use?
Introduction to JavaScript
JavaScript has been used for server-side programming, for creating desktop applications, and for game development. Earlier, when JavaScript was launched, not every web developer was ready to use it simply because many web browsers do not support JavaScript.
JavaScript is essentially a dynamic and interpreted programming language. According to its name, it is a scripting language. JavaScript is used to design an attractive interface such as to move objects on the screen or to display flashy elements on the screen, for validation on the client side, to display pop-ups or for interactions with users, developers can also control the content displayed on the document.
To use a JavaScript website, you must not change any browser settings. This is simply because JavaScript has been considered the language of web pages since its evolution. All modern browsers support JavaScript without additional plug-ins.
JavaScript is becoming popular because it has been able to display and manage dynamic web content, content that changes and adapts easily by each web user. It is basically used for interface interaction and you can also know that if a user is using a computer or mobile device if the web page is designed via JavaScript. These unique and valuable small features of JavaScript make it a preferred language for web developers.
Introduction to JQuery
Previous web developers typically create a JavaScript framework before JQuery evolves. This way, they have to work for any specific bug and even without wasting their time, they can easily debug any script. JavaScript developers have also created free and freely available libraries.
JQuery is basically not a separate scripting language, but rather a specific library of JavaScript. It is one of the most popular JavaScript libraries because it is quite easy to use and extremely powerful.
Many programmers are confused about these languages and think they are two separate programming languages, but in reality they are both the same. JQuery has been optimized to perform many script functions and can perform these functions using just a few lines of code.
JQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library and a feature-rich library. Programmers can create a common user interface with this and can also easily handle browser compatibility issues. All code written in JQuery is converted to JavaScript internally. A JQuery page is usually started with the following line of code:
<script src = “https://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-3.2.1.min.js”> </ script>
By this line, the JQuery code is inserted into the web page via Microsoft CDN or Microsoft Content Delivery Network. JQuery is just a single JavaScript file. The JQuery library can also be included in a file as a local resource from the project folder, but an earlier version using Microsoft CDN is considered the best option.
JQuery is a concise, fast and simple JavaScript library that is used to manage dynamic data or the content of a web page. It is becoming popular day by day due to its simplicity and scalability. Unlike other JavaScript libraries like MooTools, Angular, Knockout or TypeScript, it is quite simple and offers a rich library.
Difference between JavaScript and JQuery
As we saw above, these two languages are not different instead are similar and JQuery per se is a JavaScript library, but some of the features of JQuery that make it different from JavaScript and preferred by web developers are listed below:
JavaScript
- A dynamic programming language that is weakly typed
- A scripting language for controlling the document content and interface interaction
- JavaScript an interpreted language
- You may need to write your own script and it can be a time-consuming process
- Developers write their own code to handle multi-browser compatibility in JavaScript
- Just because developers have to write code manually so browser related errors are likely to occur
- Do not need to add any additional plugins as all browsers support JavaScript
- Too many code lines or lines of code
- DOM can be accessed faster
Jquery
- A concise and fast JavaScript library
- JQuery is a framework that makes Ajax interaction, event handling and animating faster and simpler
- It uses resources of JavaScript to make things and task simpler and easier
- You only have to write existing JQuery scripts so it saves your time
- Need not to worry about multi-browser compatibility issues
- Developers can remain worried free as no error due to browser compatibility will occur
- You may have to include jQuery library URL in the header of the page
- Fewer lines of code
- It is best for complex operations where developers usually make mistakes and write poor lines of code
In this way, we can say that there are no major differences between JQuery and JavaScript instead of the small differences between both makes them quite different and unique programming languages. Now as we have said that they are same or similar you may think and found it difficult to choose any one of them, so in our next section of this blog, we are going to discuss the same that which language must be used in which case?
Which should be Used JavaScript or JQuery?
We discuss throughout this article that JQuery is not a separate language, but only part of JavaScript. Most people get confused between the two simply because of the lack of understanding of the two languages. JQuery is a JavaScript library and therefore cannot replace JavaScript and we can say that all JQuery code can be replaced by JavaScript but vice versa. Thanks to JQuery, common scripting functions are done in just a few lines, so it’s not a different programming language.
Regarding the performance of the two languages, you may find JavaScript slower than JQuery, but to access DOM, JavaScript is faster than JQuery. The complex code of longer code may be easier to understand and execute if it is written in JQuery because in the case of longer code, there may be many errors in JavaScript. JQuery is faster to use and code.
Do professional web developers continue to discuss which language to use in a given situation? However, there is no correct and specific answer to this question. Both languages can create the same effect, but JQuery can do the same thing in just fewer lines of code, while JavaScript can be long.
We can say that JQuery by itself is sufficient for most web development projects, but some specific projects may still require a specific JavaScript language. Although JQuery may be the best choice in most cases, still in many cases or as a web developer, it may take time to learn JQuery and JavaScript.
Using JavaScript can slow the process and the time required to complete the project to a significant level. You can also use JQuery but if you are a novice user, JavaScript and JQuery programming can take time.
Remember that JQuery is optimized to work with multiple browsers, so if you plan to develop a project that should be used on different browsers, you should use JQuery rather than JavaScript. Even being an old programming language, there are some problems with cross-browser functionality in JavaScript and therefore web developers do not prefer it when developing a web project.
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