Difference between JSP and Servlets in Java web development

JavaServer Pages (JSP) and Servlets are key components of Java web development. While they both serve the purpose of creating dynamic web pages, there are significant differences between the two.

JSP:

• JSP stands for JavaServer Pages.
• JSP allows embedding Java code within HTML pages using special tags.
• JSP pages are translated to servlets before they are executed by the web container.
• JSP simplifies the process of creating dynamic content as it provides a way to separate Java code from HTML.
• JSP files have a .jsp extension.

Servlets:

• Servlets are Java programs that run on the server-side.
• Servlets provide a direct way to manage the requests and responses between clients and servers.
• Servlets require writing Java code to handle both presentation and business logic, which can be more complex compared to JSP.
• Servlets are compiled into Java classes before they are executed by the web container.
• Servlet files have a .java extension.

Key Differences:

The main difference between JSP and Servlets lies in the way they handle dynamic content generation. JSP focuses on simplifying the process by allowing developers to embed Java code within HTML, while Servlets require writing Java code to manage request processing and response generation directly.

In conclusion, while JSP is more suitable for rapid web development and easy integration of Java code with HTML, Servlets offer more control and flexibility in handling complex server-side processing tasks in Java web development.