What is the Difference Between C and Java?
C is a procedural, middle-level, compiled, and general-purpose programming language. Java is a high-level, object-oriented, interpreted, and general-purpose programming language. Another key difference between C and Java is that C follows the top-down approach to develop applications while Java follows the bottom-up approach.
C is easier to learn than Java. We can quickly and easily develop an application using Java. If the same program is created using the C language, the code will be lengthy and will take more time than Java. There are some other differences that we have discussed in this section.
C
C is a middle-level and general-purpose programming language. It was developed at Bell Labs by Dennis Ritchie, in 1970, for the Unix Operating System, in 1970. It is ideal for developing firmware and portable applications.
Java
In 1991, Sun Microsystems has developed the Java programming language. The team who had developed Java is known as Green Team. When the Sun Microsystems had launched Java, its name was OAK. In 1995, its name was changed to Java. Sun Microsystems has been acquired by Oracle Corporation, in 2009. Since then, Java is the product of Oracle. The main aim to develop this language was to develop applications for hand-held devices.
Difference Between C and Java
In the following table, we have described some key differences between C and Java.
| S. N. | Basis | C | Java |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Language Level | C is a middle-level language. | Java is a high-level language. |
| 2 | Paradigm | C is a structural and procedure-oriented programming language. | Java is an object-oriented programming language |
| 3 | Approach | It follows the top-down approach to design the application. | It follows the bottom-up approach to design the application. |
| 4 | Translation | It is a compiled language. | It is an interpreted language. |
| 5 | Platform Dependency | It is platform dependent. | It is platform-independent. |
| 6 | Keywords | There are 32 keywords in C. | Java has 50 keywords. |
| 7 | OOPs Concepts | It does not follow OOPs concepts. | It follows OOPs concepts. |
| 8 | File Extension | The file is saved with the extension .c. | The file is saved with the extension .java. |
| 9 | Building Block | Function driven. | Object and Class driven. |
| 10 | Comment Style | / *comment*/ | //comment or /*comment*/ |
| 11 | Security | It is not secure. | It is fully secured language. |
| 12 | Translation Type | It translates the code into machine language so that the machine can understand the code. | It translates the code into a bytecode that is executed by the JVM. |
| 13 | Pointers | It supports the concept of the pointer. | It does not support the concepts of pointers because of security. |
| 14 | Exception Handling | Exception handling is not present in C language. | Exception handling is present in Java. |
| 15 | Inheritance | It does not support inheritance that is useful for code reusability. | It supports inheritance that provides code reusability. |
| 16 | Threading | There is no concept of threading. | It supports the concept of threading. |
| 17 | Memory Management | It does not maintain memory, internally. | It maintains memory, internally. |
| 18 | File Generation | It generates .exe file. | It generates .class file. |
| 19 | Code Execution | It directly executes the code. | It executes code with the help of JVM. |
| 20 | Call by value/ Call by reference | It supports both call by value and call by reference. | It supports only call by value. |
| 21 | Portability | It is not portable. | It is portable. |
| 22 | Goto Statement | It supports the goto statement. | It does not support the goto statement. |
| 23 | Preprocessors Directives | Preprocessors are supported in C. | Preprocessors are not supported in Java. |
| 24 | Robustness | It is not robust. | It is robust due to strong memory management. |
| 25 | Used For | It is mainly used to develop system applications and firmware. | It is mainly used to develop enterprise applications and web-based applications. |
| 26 | Polymorphism/ Virtual Function/ Operator Overloading | It does not support these features and concepts. | Java supports all these features and concepts. |
| 27 | Popularity | It is less popular in comparison to Java. | It is the most popular programming language. |
Although, Java has become a popular programming language for developing the web-application, android apps, IoT applications, etc. Still, C has not lost its popularity because it is used to develop firmware, operating system, and other system utilities.