What are major differences between C# and Java?

Solution 1:

Comparing Java 7 and C# 3

(Some features of Java 7 aren't mentioned here, but the using statement advantage of all versions of C# over Java 1-6 has been removed.)

Not all of your summary is correct:

  • In Java methods are virtual by default but you can make them final. (In C# they're sealed by default, but you can make them virtual.)
  • There are plenty of IDEs for Java, both free (e.g. Eclipse, Netbeans) and commercial (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA)

Beyond that (and what's in your summary already):

  • Generics are completely different between the two; Java generics are just a compile-time "trick" (but a useful one at that). In C# and .NET generics are maintained at execution time too, and work for value types as well as reference types, keeping the appropriate efficiency (e.g. a List<byte> as a byte[] backing it, rather than an array of boxed bytes.)
  • C# doesn't have checked exceptions
  • Java doesn't allow the creation of user-defined value types
  • Java doesn't have operator and conversion overloading
  • Java doesn't have iterator blocks for simple implemetation of iterators
  • Java doesn't have anything like LINQ
  • Partly due to not having delegates, Java doesn't have anything quite like anonymous methods and lambda expressions. Anonymous inner classes usually fill these roles, but clunkily.
  • Java doesn't have expression trees
  • C# doesn't have anonymous inner classes
  • C# doesn't have Java's inner classes at all, in fact - all nested classes in C# are like Java's static nested classes
  • Java doesn't have static classes (which don't have any instance constructors, and can't be used for variables, parameters etc)
  • Java doesn't have any equivalent to the C# 3.0 anonymous types
  • Java doesn't have implicitly typed local variables
  • Java doesn't have extension methods
  • Java doesn't have object and collection initializer expressions
  • The access modifiers are somewhat different - in Java there's (currently) no direct equivalent of an assembly, so no idea of "internal" visibility; in C# there's no equivalent to the "default" visibility in Java which takes account of namespace (and inheritance)
  • The order of initialization in Java and C# is subtly different (C# executes variable initializers before the chained call to the base type's constructor)
  • Java doesn't have properties as part of the language; they're a convention of get/set/is methods
  • Java doesn't have the equivalent of "unsafe" code
  • Interop is easier in C# (and .NET in general) than Java's JNI
  • Java and C# have somewhat different ideas of enums. Java's are much more object-oriented.
  • Java has no preprocessor directives (#define, #if etc in C#).
  • Java has no equivalent of C#'s ref and out for passing parameters by reference
  • Java has no equivalent of partial types
  • C# interfaces cannot declare fields
  • Java has no unsigned integer types
  • Java has no language support for a decimal type. (java.math.BigDecimal provides something like System.Decimal - with differences - but there's no language support)
  • Java has no equivalent of nullable value types
  • Boxing in Java uses predefined (but "normal") reference types with particular operations on them. Boxing in C# and .NET is a more transparent affair, with a reference type being created for boxing by the CLR for any value type.

This is not exhaustive, but it covers everything I can think of off-hand.

Solution 2:

The following is a great in depth reference by Dare Obasanjo on the differences between C# and Java. I always find myself referring to this article when switching between the two.

http://www.25hoursaday.com/CsharpVsJava.html