Difference between compiler and interpreter

Compiler

• convert source (high level )language to Target language at a time
• shows error after complete compilation
• less time consuming if codes are smaller
• space complexity is high
• less efficient for a small program
• execute conditional code statement and logical statement faster
• generate intermediate object code for which it require more memory allocation
• e.g C, C++, etc.

Interpreter

• convert source (high level )language to Target language line by line
• shows error during run time of each line and when error found it stop debugging
• takes less time to analyze source code but overall processing is slow
• memory efficient as it takes less memory
• eg : python, ruby