Contents - Cultural View

Comparison of Java and C Sharp 62
Bags/multisets Yes Yes
Metadata Java C#
Metadata annotations/attributes Interface based Class based
Positional arguments No; unless a single argument Yes
Named arguments Yes Yes
Default values At definition Through initialization
Nested types Yes Yes
Specialization No Yes
Conditional metadata No Yes
Preprocessing, compilation and
packaging
Java C#
Namespaces Packages Namespaces
Packaging Package Assembly
File contents Restricted Free
Conditional compilation No Yes
Custom errors/warnings No Yes
Explicit regions No Yes
Threading and synchronization Java C#
Native interoperability Java C#
External/native methods Yes Yes
Marshalling External glue code required Yes; metadata controlled
Pointers and arithmetics No Yes
Native types No Yes
Fixed size buffers No Yes
Explicit stack allocation No Yes
Address pinning (fixing) No Yes
Address-of No Yes
Object pinning (fix variable to address) No Yes
Data types
Unified type system
In Java the primitive types are special in that they are not object-oriented and they could not have been defined using
the language itself. The Java reference types all derive from a common root type, however. C# has a unified type
system in which all types ultimately derive from a common root type. Consequently, all types implement the
methods of this root type, and extension methods defined for the object type apply to all types, even primitive int
literals and delegates. Note, that unlike Java, C# this way supports objects with encapsulation which are not
reference types.
In Java compound types are synonymous with reference types; you can not define methods for a type unless it is also
a class reference type. In C# the concepts of encapsulation and methods have been decoupled from the reference
requirement so that a type can support methods and encapsulation without being a reference type. Only reference
types support virtual methods and specialization, however.