Do mechanical engineers need to write code, and which language should I learn?

[DocSpringston]

Good morning everyone. I would love some insight regarding mechanical engineering and writing code. My physics professor (who also has a masters in electrical engineering) mentioned last night that the ability to write code (I apologize if I am using the term incorrectly...still kinda new to this) makes one much more marketable because, as he put it, not many can actually do it and do it well.

Two questions:
1) what is the correlation between writing code and mechanical engineering in the workplace?
2) is there a particular language recommended?

Thank you all very much for your thoughts!

 

[Shaun_W]

Depends on what type of role you get. Some mechanical engineers never have to write code whereas others do.

 

[cpscdave]

I think the point your professor was trying to make is that being able to write good code as an engineer is a bit of a niche market.

For a language you should learn, I'd suggest any of the C architype languages (C,C++,Java, C#, etc). Once you learn one language its really easy to pick up any other language. Programming is more about the thought process of how to solve the task as opposed to the specific implemention of the solution in whatever language you are coding in at that moment