Difference Between JavaScript and jQuery

Key Difference – JavaScript vs jQuery
 

There are thousands of websites on the internet. Each day new websites are created. Every business organization maintains a website to reach their customers. There are various technologies used for web application development. Two of them are JavaScript and jQuery. JavaScript is an interpreted, high-level programming language. It is one of the core technologies for web development with HTML and CSS. It is used to add interactivity to the web page.  jQuery is a library written in JavaScript. It is fast and extensible and provides more features than JavaScript. It helps the programmers to achieve tasks within a minimum number of lines than JavaScript. It simplifies the process of creating highly responsive web pages.  The key difference between JavaScript and jQuery is that JavaScript is a high level, interpreted language while jQuery is a JavaScript library. jQuery is designed to simplify the tasks achieved using JavaScript. It is easy to manipulate page content using jQuery and also provides sophisticated effects required by a modern website.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is JavaScript
3. What is jQuery
4. Similarities Between JavaScript and jQuery
5. Side by Side Comparison – JavaScript vs jQuery in Tabular Form
6. Summary

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript is a lightweight programming language used to build dynamic web pages. It is open source and cross-platform. It is a multi-paradigm programming language. It supports Object Oriented Programming. It is considered as one of the three core languages of web other than HTML and CSS. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is used to build the structure of the web page. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. JavaScript is the programming language to add interactivity to the web page.  It is a client-side language. Unlike PHP, ASP.NET that executes their code in the web server, JavaScript executes on the client-side.

JavaScript is useful to validate form fields of a web page. For example, to check whether the client entered a valid email or not. JavaScript helps to get visitors feedback immediately. It can also handle button clicks and navigations. This language makes the web page more interactive. For example, when the client hovers the mouse through the website, it responds and changes. One of the main advantages of JavaScript is that, the ability to create rich interfaces. Developing JavaScript programs is quite easy and straightforward. It is not necessary to use expensive development tools. The programmers can write JavaScript code using a text editor such as notepad. By using a web browser, those programs can be executed.

There are some drawbacks to JavaScript as well. As it is a scripting language, it is not fast like a compiler-based language such as C or C++. It also does not support multi-threading or multi-processing capabilities. It cannot be used to perform file operations and cannot directly access database. Overall, it is one of the most popular languages for web development.

What is jQuery?

jQuery is a JavaScript library. The tasks performed using JavaScript can be archived using jQuery with less amount of code. It is lightweight and fast. It supports Asynchronous JavaScript (AJAX) which helps to build responsive and feature-rich websites. It is cross-platform and works across modern web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Opera. It can abstract away browser-specific features. Therefore, it is easy for developers to concentrate on the design. It provides image fading capabilities, animations and events.

jQuery is based on Document Object Model (DOM). It is a tree structure that represents all elements of the web page. jQuery simplifies finding, selecting and manipulating the DOM elements. It can be used to accomplish the same tasks performed by JavaScript. But using jQuery, most of them can be accomplished with less amount of code than JavaScript. It can be used as an alternative to JavaScript because it is fast and extensible. There are many third-party libraries available to perform specialized tasks, or the developer can write his own programs using jQuery plug-ins.

Today, companies such as Google, IBM, Microsoft also use jQuery as one of their web technologies. Overall, jQuery provides several advantages such as HTML, CSS and DOM manipulation. JSON parsing and much more while simplifying modern web development process easier.

What are the Similarities Between JavaScript and jQuery?

• Both JavaScript and jQuery are used to create dynamic web pages.
• Both JavaScript and jQuery are open source and cross-platform.
• Both JavaScript and jQuery support Object-oriented
• Both JavaScript and jQuery can be used to validate web pages.
• Both JavaScript and jQuery can be used to create events.
• Both JavaScript and jQuery are supported by many web browsers.

What is the Difference Between JavaScript and jQuery?

Summary – JavaScript vs jQuery 

JavaScript and jQuery are widely used web technologies to create dynamic and interactive web pages. This article discussed the difference between JavaScript and jQuery. JavaScript can be embedded in HTML pages to make web pages interactive and to perform various validation tasks. jQuery can be used as an alternative to JavaScript. It is a JavaScript library. The difference between JavaScript and jQuery is that JavaScript is a high level, interpreted language while jQuery is a JavaScript library. It is designed to simplify the tasks achieved using JavaScript. jQuery works with sets of elements, and it is easier to manipulate page content.

Reference:

1.Point, Tutorials. “JQuery Overview.” Tutorials Point, 8 Jan. 2018. Available here 
2.“JQuery.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2018. Available here 
3.“JavaScript.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Feb. 2018. Available here   

Image Courtesy:

1.’Javascript-shield’By Omed Habib (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia  
2.’Logo jQuery’By Unknown (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia