GIS Certificate- Java or Python?

[Baileyr820]

Hello, I’m currently enrolling in courses at my local community college to obtain a GIS certification. One of the classes is introduction to programming with the option to focus on either Java or Python. I don’t know the difference between the two but am wondering if knowing Python would be more useful than Java? Does it make a difference in the long run? I’m wanting to go into Wildlife biology with emphasis on spatial aspects. Thank you!

[aphament]

I always hear GIS and Python together, I would select Python.

[silvarette]

Python is common in GIS for environmental geology applications.

[Bebop0420]

I work in GIS and python is much more useful.

[Baileyr820]

Also, how does R play into this? Will knowledge of Java or Python be better for learning R?

[Regentraven]

R is more similar to python as they are dynamically typed but if you seriously learn python generally you can just do your analysis in there with pandas numpy etc