Introduction to C# (C Sharp)

C# is the object-oriented and type-safe programming language that enables programmers to build enterprise-scale applications using Microsoft .Net platform.

C# was created by Anders Hejlsberg, Scot Wiltamuth, and Peter Golde and is defined by the standard (European Computers Manufacturer’s Association) ECMA-334. C# supports XML and SOAP and has access to the .NET class library. C# is similar in syntax to both C++ and Java and is considered by Microsoft as the natural evolution of the C and C++ languages.

Both C# and Java have some common advanced features such as automatic garbage collection and initially compiling to an intermediate language. C# first compiles the code to Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) and Java first compiles the code to bytecode. Because C# supports .Net Framework, the Common Language Runtime (CLR) engine is used to compile the program code to MSIL and then “just-in-time” to the native code. Instead, Java uses Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to compiles the program code to Java bytecode and then interprets it to the native code.

When it comes to C++, the difference is not very deep but still there are some significant changes in C#. C# does not contain header files that mean code can be written inline. Moreover, the ‘plumbing’ of C# types is different from that of C++ types. C# types are derived from the ‘object’ type. In addition there is no concept of multiple class inheritance in C#. C# is case sensitive, therefore, you will get compiler errors when you write ‘console’ instead of ‘Console’.

C# support two kinds of types: value types and reference types. Value types directly contain the data of the variables but reference types store references to objects. A few examples of value types include char type, int type, float type, enum type, and struct type and a few examples of reference types include class types, delegate types, array types, and interface types.