What is the best coding language to know to become a computer programer?

I have been coding for over 40 years on many different computers and in many different languages. I expect the same will happen in the next 40 years. There are always better computers, better computer languages and new applications. That said: what are the best coding languages today.

1) I think the best language to start with is Python. It is easy to learn, and uses simple readable code. Also, it is a general purpose language that can be used for many different applications.

2) Next I would agree with the job market and learn--Java, C++, PHP. See the link below.

https://www.codingdojo.com/blog/7-most-in-demand-programming-languages-of-2018/

Below are two links that show the steps to learning a program language.

https://lifehacker.com/top-10-ways-to-teach-yourself-to-code-1684250889

https://www.wikihow.com/Start-Learning-Computer-Programming

Learning a programming language takes time, repetition, and more repetition. On-line programming courses are good but a good book that you can markup and review is still needed. Progamming Python O'Reilly by Mark Lutz is a good one. It takes you through the whole process from learning the first steps to more advanced programming skills.

The good news is once you have learned your first language learn more languages isn't as hard because you have learned programming fundamentals that every language uses--just different syntax.

I started programming in school learning in Java, and ended up never professionally coding in it. The key is to get a solid understanding of key concepts and then you'll be able to learn pretty much any language you need to. I highly recommend checking out the 2018 Stack Overflow developer survey, it will show you how the market breaks out between different kinds of development, and the popularity of different languages:

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/

I would also suggest python as a great starting point. There is a course on Udacity that uses python as an introduction to computer science I'd recommend (https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-computer-science--cs101). The best advice a college counselor gave me was to believe I had the ability to learn anything, not just the first thing I was good at or what I had previously studied.