Overview

Swift

Stacks20.6K

Followers13.6K

Votes1.3K

Stacks59.4K

Followers46.3K

Votes2.2K

C++

Stacks17.4K

Followers9.4K

Votes866

C# vs C++ vs Swift: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will explore the key differences between C#, C++, and Swift. Each of these programming languages has its own unique features and purposes, making them suitable for different types of projects and development scenarios. Understanding these differences will help developers make informed decisions about which language to use for their specific needs.

1. Syntax:

C# has a syntax similar to Java and C++, with a strong emphasis on object-oriented programming. It uses curly braces to define blocks of code and has a structured approach.

C++, on the other hand, supports a combination of procedural, object-oriented, and generic programming paradigms. It requires explicit memory management and provides low-level control over hardware resources.

Swift, developed by Apple, has a modern and concise syntax. It combines features from various languages, making it easy to read and write. It also provides memory management through automatic reference counting.

2. Platform Compatibility:

C# is primarily used for developing applications on the Microsoft .NET framework and is mainly limited to Windows-based systems. However, with the introduction of .NET Core, it has expanded its reach to Linux and macOS platforms.

C++ is highly portable and can run on various operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is often used in system-level programming and embedded systems.

Swift was initially designed to develop applications for Apple's macOS and iOS platforms. However, with the release of Swift Package Manager, it has become more versatile and can be used to build cross-platform applications on macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and Linux.

3. Memory Management:

C# utilizes automatic memory management through a garbage collector. This relieves developers from manual memory deallocation and reduces the risk of memory leaks.

C++ provides direct control over memory management and requires explicit allocation and deallocation of memory using operators like "new" and "delete." While this level of control offers better performance, it also increases the risk of memory-related issues.

Swift combines automatic reference counting (ARC) with optional value types. ARC automatically manages memory for class instances, while value types are automatically handled by the compiler, reducing the need for manual memory management.

4. Performance:

C# is a high-level language that offers a balance between performance and productivity. It provides features like just-in-time (JIT) compilation and optimized code generation, making it suitable for various applications.

C++ is known for its performance and is often used in scenarios where efficiency is crucial, such as game development, system programming, and resource-constrained environments.

Swift is designed to be fast and efficient, leveraging modern compiler optimizations. Its emphasis on value semantics and low-level control allows for high-performance execution.

5. Community and Ecosystem:

C# has a large and active developer community, with extensive documentation, libraries, and frameworks available. It is widely used in enterprise software development and has a mature ecosystem.

C++ has been around for several decades and has a vast ecosystem of libraries and frameworks. It is supported by a strong community of developers and is often used in performance-critical applications.

Swift, being a relatively young language, has a smaller but growing community. It benefits from Apple's support and has robust documentation and a steadily expanding ecosystem.

6. Target Applications:

C# is commonly used for developing Windows desktop applications, web applications using ASP.NET, and games using Unity game engine. It is also popular in enterprise software development.

C++ is widely used in various domains, such as game development, embedded systems, system-level programming, and performance-critical applications.

Swift is primarily used for developing applications on Apple platforms, including macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It is widely adopted for building mobile applications and has gained popularity in the iOS development community.

In summary, C#, C++, and Swift offer distinct features and target different types of applications and platforms. C# provides a structured, object-oriented approach primarily for Windows development, while C++ offers low-level control and performance for various domains. Swift, on the other hand, is focused on Apple platforms, providing a modern syntax and ease of use.

Advice on Swift, C#, C++

Andrew

Chief Software Architect at Xelex Digital, LLC

Jun 27, 2020

Decided

In 2015 as Xelex Digital was paving a new technology path, moving from ASP.NET web services and web applications, we knew that we wanted to move to a more modular decoupled base of applications centered around REST APIs.

To that end we spent several months studying API design patterns and decided to use our own adaptation of CRUD, specifically a SCRUD pattern that elevates query params to a more central role via the Search action.

Once we nailed down the API design pattern it was time to decide what language(s) our new APIs would be built upon. Our team has always been driven by the right tool for the job rather than what we know best. That said, in balancing practicality we chose to focus on 3 options that our team had deep experience with and knew the pros and cons of.

For us it came down to C#, JavaScript, and Ruby. At the time we owned our infrastructure, racks in cages, that were all loaded with Windows. We were also at a point that we were using that infrastructure to it's fullest and could not afford additional servers running Linux. That's a long way of saying we decided against Ruby as it doesn't play nice on Windows.

That left us with two options. We went a very unconventional route for deciding between the two. We built MVP APIs on both. The interfaces were identical and interchangeable. What we found was easily quantifiable differences.

We were able to iterate on our Node based APIs much more rapidly than we were our C# APIs. For us this was owed to the community coupled with the extremely dynamic nature of JS. There were tradeoffs we considered, latency was (acceptably) higher on requests to our Node APIs. No strong types to protect us from ourselves, but we've rarely found that to be an issue.

As such we decided to commit resources to our Node APIs and push it out as the core brain of our new system. We haven't looked back since. It has consistently met our needs, scaling with us, getting better with time as continually pour into and expand our capabilities.

446k views446k

Comments

Erik

Chief Architect at LiveTiles

May 18, 2020

Decided

C# and .Net were obvious choices for us at LiveTiles given our investment in the Microsoft ecosystem. It enabled us to harness of the .Net framework to build ASP.Net MVC, WebAPI, and Serverless applications very easily. Coupled with the high productivity of Visual Studio, it's the native tongue of Microsoft technology.

613k views613k

Comments

Rachel

Nov 24, 2020

Needs adviceon

JavaScript

Python

C++

Hi, I'm just starting to learn code, and I stumbled upon this website. I think I should learn JavaScript, Python, and C++ to begin with. I'm a quick learner so I am only worried about what would be more useful. Suppose my goal is to build an online clothing store or something. Then what languages would be best? I need advice. Please help me out. I'm 13 and just beginning and it's hard to understand when people use technical terms so please keep it simple. Thanks a lot.

292k views292k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Swift	C#	C++
Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.	C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.	C++ compiles directly to a machine's native code, allowing it to be one of the fastest languages in the world, if optimized.
Statistics
Stacks 20.6K	Stacks 59.4K	Stacks 17.4K
Followers 13.6K	Followers 46.3K	Followers 9.4K
Votes 1.3K	Votes 2.2K	Votes 866
Pros & Cons
Pros 259 Ios 180 Elegant 126 Not Objective-C 107 Backed by apple 93 Type inference Cons 6 Must own a mac 2 Memory leaks are not uncommon 1 Is a lot more effort than lua to make simple functions 1 Very irritatingly picky about things that’s 1 Complicated process for exporting modules	Pros 351 Cool syntax 294 Great lambda support 267 Great generics support 212 Language integrated query (linq) 181 Extension methods Cons 15 Poor x-platform GUI support 8 Closed source 7 Requires DllImportAttribute for getting stuff from unma 7 Fast and secure	Pros 205 Performance 108 Control over memory allocation 99 Cross-platform 98 Fast 85 Object oriented Cons 8 Unsafe 8 Slow compilation 6 Over-complicated 6 Fragile ABI 5 No standard/mainstream dependency management
Integrations
Cocoa Touch (iOS)	.NET	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Swift, C#, C++?

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Rust

Rust is a systems programming language that combines strong compile-time correctness guarantees with fast performance. It improves upon the ideas of other systems languages like C++ by providing guaranteed memory safety (no crashes, no data races) and complete control over the lifecycle of memory.