C is a procedural programming language with a static system, whereas C++ is an enhanced version of the C programming language with object-oriented programming support.
Therefore, learning C is relevant and helps to improve programming in C++. Among the top 700 programming languages, C and C++ come to light as the most popular in learning and skill development.
If you’ve ever wondered about the significant differences between C and C++, this article is for you.
What Is the C Programming Language?
C is an essential general-purpose computer programming language that supports structural programming, typical machine instructions, recursion, and variables with a static system. Besides, the C programming language allows programmers to handle addresses, bits, and bytes and gives swift control over development.
Dennis M. Ritchie developed the C programming language in 1972 to implement in the UNIX operating system. Initially, programmers used the C language to design systems, primarily the operating systems. It was gradually applied in the compiler, assemblers, text editor, database, utilizer, and more.
Before learning C programming, we should understand its terminologies, such as argument, function, variables, class, built-in types, loops, array, and more. It helps to write a few lines of code as an exercise. Programmers write codes in a text file with an extension of “.c”.
What Is the C++ Programming Language?
C++ is an enhanced version of the C programming developed by Bjarne Stroustrup back in 1986. It adds up every part of C, including object-oriented programming. Likewise, C++ is used in game development, software infrastructure, and application.
It can significantly handle hardware and run code in any environment. As a result, C++ is one of the leading choices to create dynamic and agile software that operates system resources and critical tasking.
Like other programming languages, C++ also has some terminologies, such as class, method, object, polymorphism, subclass, superclass, and more. Additionally, it has its own file extension that uses “.cpp” , “.cxx”, “.c++”, and “.h”, “.hpp”, “.hxx”, “.h++” for headers.
C++ had its latest version, C++23, released on June 18, 2021.
C vs C++: The 10 Core Differences
As discussed earlier, both C and C++ are general-purpose, procedural languages. However, the core difference between C and C++ is that the C programming language does not allow class and object whereas C++ is an object-oriented programming language.
Let’s find out the core differences between C and C++.
Procedure
The C programming language doesn’t support object-oriented programming. Consequently, it doesn’t allow polymorphism, inheritance, etc. Being an OOP language, C++ does support polymorphism and inheritance.
Security
Since the C language doesn’t allow encapsulation, data becomes accessible and can be demolished via other entities. However, C++ supports encapsulation, which secures data structure and uses it as required.
Approach
The C programming language operates with the top-down approach, which breaks the central unit into smaller tasks. C++ follows the bottom-down approach, which works from low level to next level.
Input/Output Functions
The C language operates through “scanf” and “printf” as input and output functions, and C++ uses “cin” and “cout” as input-output functions.
Overloading and Overriding
Method overriding specifies a function’s implementation in the base class, whereas method overloading is a system that allows bearing multiple functions with various parameters. C doesn’t support either of these, but C++ supports both.
Allocation
C programming follows two essential functions, calloc() and malloc(), for memory allocation, and free() for memory deallocation. C++ uses new operators for memory allocation and delete operation for memory deallocation.
Compiler
Compiler processes the source code into assembly language. The C programming compilation process converts the source code into object code or machine code.
The extension of the source code is “.c”, and the name of the object file is “.obj”. If we use C++ source code, then the file name will be “prg.cpp”, “g++”," -wall", or “-ansi”.
Platform
C’s popular platforms are Windows, GNU, and Linux for Tiny C Compiler and macOS/OSX for Xcode. Eclipse is a well-known IDE for C++. A few other commonly used IDEs are Visual Studio and NetBeans.
Variable
Generally, the C programming language uses two types of values, which include immediate and variables. Four basic variable types of C are int, float, char, and double. In C++, language variables must be declared first. The primary variable types for C++ are bool, void, and wchar_t.
Features
The C programming language is a procedural, fast, and efficient language with modularity and a rich set of built-in operators. Unlike C, C++ is a procedural language with OOP. In addition, it’s machine-independent, simple, and case-sensitive.
The C programming language is a mid-level language, while C++ is a high-level language.
Here’s a table comparing both of these programming languages:
C Programming Language Example
C++ Programming Language Example
Both C and C++ Are Promising for the Foreseeable Future
A large number of programmers and technology enthusiasts thought that languages like C and C++ wouldn’t impact this decade. However, because of their development features and wide range of applications, C and C++ are still exciting career pathways.
Although other languages are rising with newer aspects and functionalities, they have their distinct purposes. However, without worrying about the career pathways, you can learn the programming languages that interest you.
