Before moving into a debate on Java Versus C#, let’s look back into the history of these two extremely popular languages.

History

Unit late 80’s Sun Microsystems was primarily a hardware company selling servers and Microsoft was riding high on its Windows monopoly. But in the early 90’s James Gosling, a computer scientist of Sun Microsystems, developed Java an object-oriented programming language that compiled (generally using JIT compilation) to bytecode and then run by JVM (Java Virtual Machine). It was able to run on multiple platforms without writing code for each one. When Java emerged, it was hailed as a technology that would greatly affect Microsoft’s future. Now ideally developers do not have to dedicate themselves to writing Windows programs for their survival.

Microsoft’s strategy at that time was “Embrace, Extend and Extinguish” because they wanted users to embrace successful technology, utilize the latest and best versions of Microsoft, and finally stop using old and outdated versions of the software. That strategy forced customers to use Windows and Microsoft Products. With the emergence of Java, they saw the same opportunity and started working on their own implementation of JVM with IE3 and then started to enhance Java beyond the Java standards.

In October 1997, Sun Microsystems sued Microsoft for incompletely implementing the Java 1.1 standards. To outshine the Sun’s JVM, Microsoft brought renowned programming language designer Andres Hejlsberg on board to create a better Java (practically not Java). Thus, C# came into existence.

Since the release of C# 2.0 in Nov 2005, Java and C# has evolved increasingly on divergent trajectories.

 

Uses

When we start to learn any language what do we look at first?  The language scope (in our case it’s about the java vs c# future) and our career growth in it, right? So, let’s see the uses of both languages in the real world.

• Java –
  • Starting from commercial websites to android apps Java language is used.
  • Lots of global investment banks like Citigroup, Barclays, etc. use Java for client and server end codes.
  • Many RESTful services being created using Spring MVC and a similar framework.
  • Software and development tools like Eclipse, IntelliJ Idea, and NetBeans are written and developed in Java.
  • Java technology has the motto “write once, run anywhere”, which is now showing its useful result in embedded spaces. It is used in smart cards and sensors.
  • Java is often a default choice for scientific applications. Modern JS is quite popular in Developers
• C# –
  • After the introduction of.Net core, now C# has also entered the arena of creating apps for multiple platforms.
  • Cross-platform tools such as Xamarin allow apps written in C# to run on almost any mobile device.
  • It is strong at building Windows desktop applications.
  • Web Applications are now widely developed on C#.
  • Unity is the most popular game engine today. More than one-third of the games are made using Unity. Unity is also used for VR, with 90% of Samsung gear created on Unity using C# language.

So, we can see how both languages are effectively used in the real world. Now let’s talk about some of their similarities and differences.

  Java Versus C#: Major Similarities

• Type-Safe: Throws exception when an object is mistakenly cast into some other object which was not intended. Suppose, you have two objects and one is of Employee Class and another is of Employer Class. When you try to cast anyone object into another, it will throw an exception.
• Garbage Collection: Memory management is the most important aspect of any program. In low-level language, it is a very tedious task to manage memory, but you don’t have to worry about memory leaks if you are using C# or Java. They both have Garbage Collector built-in which looks after the memory and deletes unused objects from the memory.
• Single Inheritance: You must have read about the famous Diamond Problem in inheritance. If not please look it now. C# and Java support only single inheritance to negate the problem.
• Interface: Well I will not dig deep into describing the interface and abstract class. I just want to say that both languages have interface instead of multiple inheritances.

Java Versus C#: Major Differences

• Platforms: Java supports multiple platforms and is open-source, whereas C# is new at supporting multiple platforms and mostly used in development on the Microsoft platform.
• Generics: Java has erasers for implementing generics and casts are added upon compilation into bytecode. C# has a slight performance gain over Java as it has integrated it into CLI which allows type information to be available at runtime.
• Delegates: C# has delegates, but Java has no built-in delegate feature.
• Exceptions: Java has only two types of exceptions: checked and unchecked, while C# has only one exception.
• Polymorphism: In Java, it is by default while C# invokes it by virtual and override keywords.

Syntactically both languages are almost the same. A C# developer can easily relate with code written in Java and vice-versa.

Also Read: Telerik Reporting vs Power BI or Tableau

 

Statistics

Now let’s talk about the stats of 2017-18:

• A number of job openings in Java and C# worldwide:

Java: 62,000

C# : 27,000

• In terms of the average salary earned by both language developers:

Java: $74,000 – $130,000

C#: $89,000

• In terms of developers available in both languages worldwide:

Java: more than 10 million developers

C#: more than 6 million developers

So, according to stats, both languages have plenty on their plates.

 

Conclusion: Which is better C# or Java?

C# is an advanced language and has more built-in features than what Java provides. Currently.Net Core is extending its wings towards cross-platform too. The stats are in favor of Java due to its cross-platform motto and I think C# will also be there soon in stats.

So, learn the language that suits you and feels comfortable with it. In today’s fast-paced growing technology environment, you cannot learn just one language and stay with it forever. Get expertise in one and keep yourself updated by learning other languages as well to become a better programmer. Nothing exists forever, so sooner or later some new language will always overtake it.

 

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