StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Languages
  4. Languages
  5. Java vs MATLAB

Java vs MATLAB

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Java
Java
Stacks148.0K
Followers105.5K
Votes3.7K
MATLAB
MATLAB
Stacks1.1K
Followers702
Votes37

Java vs MATLAB: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Java and MATLAB

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between Java and MATLAB, two popular programming languages used in different domains.

  1. Syntax and Programming Paradigm: Java is a statically-typed, object-oriented programming language that follows a procedural programming paradigm. It uses curly braces and semicolons to separate code blocks and statements. MATLAB, on the other hand, is a dynamically-typed, high-level scripting language that follows a functional programming paradigm. It uses whitespace and end statement to separate code blocks and statements.

  2. Application Domain: Java is widely used for developing enterprise-level applications, Android apps, and web applications. It provides a wide range of libraries and frameworks for building scalable and robust applications. On the other hand, MATLAB is primarily used for numerical computation, data analysis, and scientific research. It provides an extensive set of mathematical functions and tools for working with signals, images, and matrices.

  3. Performance and Execution: Java programs are compiled into bytecode, which is then executed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). This intermediate step provides platform independence and allows Java programs to run on any JVM-compatible system. MATLAB, on the other hand, uses an interpreter to execute code directly, without any intermediate compilation step. This makes MATLAB code execution faster in certain scenarios, especially when dealing with complex mathematical operations.

  4. Toolbox and Libraries: Java has a vast ecosystem of libraries and frameworks that provide various functionalities for different domains. There are libraries available for web development, data processing, networking, and more. In contrast, MATLAB comes with built-in toolboxes that provide specialized functions for specific domains, such as signal processing, image processing, control systems, and optimization. These toolboxes make MATLAB a powerful tool for scientific and engineering applications.

  5. Ease of Use and Learning Curve: Java has a steeper learning curve compared to MATLAB. It requires a good understanding of object-oriented programming concepts, data structures, and algorithms. MATLAB, on the other hand, has a more straightforward syntax and is more accessible for beginners. Its interactive nature, combined with built-in functions and visualization capabilities, makes it easier to learn and use for data analysis and numerical computation tasks.

  6. Community and Support: Java has a massive community of developers worldwide, with extensive online resources, forums, and documentation available. It is backed by Oracle, which provides regular updates, bug fixes, and support. MATLAB also has a significant user base, especially in the scientific and engineering community. It has its own official documentation, support forums, and online resources. However, the community size and resources are relatively smaller compared to Java.

In summary, Java and MATLAB differ in terms of syntax, programming paradigms, application domains, performance, available libraries, ease of use, and community support. Understanding these differences can help you choose the right tool for your specific programming needs.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Advice on Java, MATLAB

Erik
Erik

Chief Architect at LiveTiles

May 18, 2020

Decided

C# and .Net were obvious choices for us at LiveTiles given our investment in the Microsoft ecosystem. It enabled us to harness of the .Net framework to build ASP.Net MVC, WebAPI, and Serverless applications very easily. Coupled with the high productivity of Visual Studio, it's the native tongue of Microsoft technology.

614k views614k
Comments
Nick
Nick

Building cool things on the internet 🛠️ at Stream

Sep 5, 2019

Review

I work at Stream and I'm immensely proud of what our team is working on here at the company. Most recently, we announced our Android SDK accompanied by an extensive tutorial for Java and Kotlin. The tutorial covers just about everything you need to know when it comes to using our Android SDK for Stream Chat. The Android SDK touches many features offered by Stream Chat – more specifically, typing status, read state, file uploads, threads, reactions, editing messages, and commands. Head over to https://getstream.io/tutorials/android-chat/ and give it a whirl!

176k views176k
Comments
Ido
Ido

Mar 6, 2020

Decided

When developing a new blockchain, we as a team chose Go lang over Java and other candidates, due to Go being (a) natively suited to concurrency - there are primitives in the language itself (goroutines, channels) that really help with reasoning about concurrency (b) super fast - build time, running, testing are all much faster that Java, this gives a far superior developer experience (c) shorter and stricter than Java - code is much shorter (less verbose), and there is usually one good way to do things, and even the code formatter that is bundled with Go is very opinionated - over a short time this makes reading other people's code far smoother than having to deal with different styles.

You should be aware that Go presently (v1.13) lacks Generics.

267k views267k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Java
Java
MATLAB
MATLAB

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Using MATLAB, you can analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications. The language, tools, and built-in math functions enable you to explore multiple approaches and reach a solution faster than with spreadsheets or traditional programming languages, such as C/C++ or Java.

Statistics
Stacks
148.0K
Stacks
1.1K
Followers
105.5K
Followers
702
Votes
3.7K
Votes
37
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 608
    Great libraries
  • 446
    Widely used
  • 401
    Excellent tooling
  • 396
    Huge amount of documentation available
  • 334
    Large pool of developers available
Cons
  • 33
    Verbosity
  • 27
    NullpointerException
  • 17
    Nightmare to Write
  • 16
    Overcomplexity is praised in community culture
  • 12
    Boiler plate code
Pros
  • 20
    Simulink
  • 5
    Model based software development
  • 5
    Functions, statements, plots, directory navigation easy
  • 3
    S-Functions
  • 2
    REPL
Cons
  • 2
    Doesn't allow unpacking tuples/arguments lists with *
  • 2
    Parameter-value pairs syntax to pass arguments clunky
  • 2
    Does not support named function arguments
  • 1
    Costs a lot
Integrations
Spring
Spring
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Java, MATLAB?

JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Golang

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Swift

Swift

Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.

Related Comparisons

Bootstrap
Materialize

Bootstrap vs Materialize

Laravel
Django

Django vs Laravel vs Node.js

Bootstrap
Foundation

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

Node.js
Spring Boot

Node.js vs Spring-Boot

Liquibase
Flyway

Flyway vs Liquibase