Updated May 29, 2023
Difference Between C# and JavaScript
C# is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language. It is intended for a simple, modern and general-purpose language. It has been designed to build software ranging from small functions to large operating systems. It is also a multi-paradigm language that is strong typed, imperative, declarative, functional, and component-oriented, whereas JavaScript is a high-level programming language. It is mostly used in web browsers. Along with HTML and CSS, JavaScript is the foundation of the world wide web. It makes the interaction between client and server possible. A vast majority of websites use JavaScript and almost all modern web browsers have a JavaScript engine. JavaScript supports event-driven, functional, and imperative programming styles, it is a multi-paradigm language. It can work with text, arrays, regular expressions, dates, and can perform basic manipulation of the document object model (DOM).
What is JavaScript?
JavaScript is easy to learn a programming language. JavaScript follows ECMAScript standards along with some of its own additional features that are not present in the ECMAScript standard. JavaScript is a scripting language that was first introduced in 1995 by Netscape.
Initially, JavaScript was used as a client-side programming language. Gradually with the enhancement of the language, more new functionalities were added to extend its support towards server-side scripting, PDF software, and word processing. Today JavaScript is fairly popular and widely used scripting language alongside CSS and HTML to create interactive and beautiful websites.
What is C#?
When Microsoft took the .NET initiative in around 2000, it introduced C# approved by the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) and International Standards Organization (ISO). The hash symbol ‘#’ in C# is commonly referred to as the word ‘SHARP’. C# is an object-oriented programming language that comes fully integrated with the Visual Studio IDE. The coding structure of C# closely resembles Java. C# requires compilation and hence can be compiled in a variety of platforms. C# is also a part of Microsoft’s .NET framework.
Head to Head Comparison Between C# and JavaScript (Infographics)
Below is the top 8 difference between C# and JavaScript:
Key Differences Between C# and JavaScript
Now that we discussed most of the essential features of C# vs JavaScript languages, in this section we can talk about some of the other difference
- JavaScript has so many tutorials, documents, and help available that it is easy to learn.
- C# is so complex and vast, it may frighten the learn at first sight.
- The developer community and peer network for both JavaScript vs C# language are strong but in a hindsight, it seems C# has a better peer group among windows developers.
- Nowadays, as nobody can get away with learning just a single language, it does not matter which one you start with. Having the knowledge of both JavaScript vs C# will only be beneficial in the long run.
- Generally, one needs to write so many lines of code in C# like Java to get things done which is not the case in JavaScript.
- The language syntax of C# is more consistent than plain JavaScript.
- One good thing about JavaScript is that it is still evolving, newer things build in other languages also started coming into JavaScript.
- Now that TypeScript is evolving, it is worth learning. TypeScript brings many missing key features to JavaScript which was not there in vanilla implementation.
- JavaScript has thousands of free libraries available and strong community support while C# is very limited as it is primarily windows based.
Examples
Below are the topmost examples between C# and JavaScript
- The below example shows a sample JavaScript script running which on a browser shows a text, and on clicking the text, we will see the color of the text changing.
JavaScript
<html>
<body>
<p onclick="myFunction(this, 'red')">Click to change color.</p>
<script> function myFunction(element,colour) { element.style.color = colour; } </script>
</body>
</html>- The below example prints our all-time favorite string Hello World using C#.
C#
using System;
namespace HelloWorldApplication
{
class HelloWorld
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
/* my first program in C# */
Console.WriteLine("Hello World");
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}- The below example shows how JavaScript can be scripted so that running it on a web browser shows a button. On clicking the button, we are able to see date and time.
JavaScript
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First JavaScript</h1>
<button type="button" onclick="document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML = Date()"> Click me to display Date and Time</button> <p id="demo"></p>
</body>
</html>- The below example shows how to use read and write files using FileStream class in C#.
C#
using System;
using System.IO;
namespace FileIOApplication
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
FileStream F = new FileStream("test.dat", FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite);
for (int i = 1; i <= 20; i++)
{
F.WriteByte((byte)i);
}
F.Position = 0;
for (int i = 0; i <= 20; i++)
{
Console.Write(F.ReadByte() + " ");
}
F.Close();
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}- From the above examples, we can simply copy paste the JavaScript example codes, paste them into a text file and change the extension of the file to .html. This will enable us to execute the codes. For running the C# examples we can either use the C# IDE, i.e. Microsoft Visual Studio or use the command line to compile C# codes.
- Like we discussed earlier, for both the above examples, JavaScript executes in any browser. But C# is more of Server Side programming on Windows server.
- JavaScript is weakly typed while C# is strongly typed. From the above examples, we see the use of classes and types in C# while there are no type definitions for JavaScript.
C# and JavaScript Comparison Table
Let’s look at the top Comparison between C# and JavaScript.
| Basis of comparison |
C# |
JAVASCRIPT |
| Type | It is an object-oriented programming language. | It is a scripting language. |
| Verbosity/Simplicity | C# is Static Typed. It adds type adding capabilities to a variable. This highly reduces coding errors much before it is executed and we can quickly debug applications written in C#. | JavaScript is Dynamic Typed. It does not require variable type assignments, i.e., a variable can hold String and again the same variable can hold Integer without any modification to the code. |
| Error Detection | With the static typing approach, we have the ability to detect errors while coding. Unlike JavaScript, where the code needs to be compiled. | We cannot detect errors in JavaScript while coding. Errors are detected only while executing JavaScript code. |
| Compilation | Codes written in C# needs to be compiled. The compiled code results in executable files that can be run. This adds an additional step to executing C# codes. | We need not compile JavaScript codes. Our browsers run them. |
| Code Maintenance | In C# we have the ability to refactor codes and make small changes easily. Hence, it becomes easier to maintain large applications | Writing code in JavaScript for large applications is cumbersome to maintain. |
| Productivity | Using Microsoft Visual Studio, a developer gets the integrated development environment (IDE) support for C#. With this they get the added advantages of code auto-completion, error detection while coding as well as dynamic typing, resulting in enhanced productivity and worry-free coding. | Unl ike C#, developers have to write JavaScript codes without any IDE IDE support. |
| Syntax | We write codes using the concepts of types and interfaces in C#. It is similar to OOPs syntax. | We can simply write JavaScript codes inside a script tag in HTML. We write JavaScript codes in OBSL syntax (Object Based Script language). |
| Client Side/Server Side Language | Commonly used on Server Side. For running C# on the client-side, we use the Silverlight plugin on the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. | Commonly used on Client Side. We have a few frameworks based on JavaScript that allows us to use JavaScript on the server side. |
Conclusion
Basically, JavaScript is a scripting language developed by Netscape Communications. It was designed for developing client applications initially but later on support for server-side coding was also introduced. There are several frameworks that are built upon JavaScript like JQuery, Angular.js, ReactJS, and Meteor.js to name a few. JavaScript has a growing community and is continuously updating with new features.
C# is an object-oriented programming language that is developed by Microsoft and the project is head by Anders Hejlsberg. The C# codes are easy to learn if we have basic knowledge of Java or C++ programming languages. The latest version of C# is 15.7.2 and is used alongside Microsoft Visual Studio 2017.
Based on organizational requirements, a majority of client-side work is done in JavaScript. Most of the websites that we browse use JavaScript. Though C# has its own pros comparatively JavaScript is more popular and we can find expert developers easily. C# is also popular but kind of outdated in terms of usage.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to the top difference between C# and JavaScript. Here we also discuss the head to head differences, key differences along with infographics and comparison table. You may also have a look at the following C# vs JavaScript articles to learn more –
