Difference between C# and VB.NET

[Raj Dhrolia]

Hi Guys,

It might seem to be a very easy question, but i am very much eager to
know some good technical difference between C# and VB.NET.

Are there anything that i can do in one language and cannot in other?
And finally why C# seems to be a sort of standard in industry?

Regards,
Raj Dhrolia.

[Alexander Nenashev]

Yes, a good question.

For example are there differences in

- implicit/explicit conversions
- user-defined operators

?

i just haven't look at vb so maybe a quick guide could be provided by
someone
to help us avoid digging in vb specification?

[Dmitriy Lapshin [C# / .NET MVP]]

> Are there anything that i can do in one language and cannot in other?

For example, in VB .NET a single class method can implement several
interface methods. This trick, as fas as I know, is not possible in C#. In
fact, most of the differences between the languages are subtleties like this
one. I think there is no fundamental task you can do in one language and
cannot in the other.

And finally why C# seems to be a sort of standard in industry?
I think because it has been initially designed for .NET while VB.NET is
rather an improvement to VB6.

--
Dmitriy Lapshin [C# / .NET MVP]
X-Unity Test Studio
http://x-unity.miik.com.ua/teststudio.aspx
Bring the power of unit testing to VS .NET IDE

"Raj Dhrolia" <ra********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uu**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl... Hi Guys,

It might seem to be a very easy question, but i am very much eager to
know some good technical difference between C# and VB.NET.

Are there anything that i can do in one language and cannot in other?
And finally why C# seems to be a sort of standard in industry?

Regards,
Raj Dhrolia.

[Frank Oquendo]

Dmitriy Lapshin [C# / .NET MVP] wrote:

For example, in VB .NET a single class method can implement several
interface methods. This trick, as fas as I know, is not possible in
C#.

I don't understand this statement. C# classes can implement more than
one interface and the methods contained therein so obviously you're
talking about something else.

--
There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who
don't.

http://code.acadx.com
(Pull the pin to reply)

[Dmitriy Lapshin [C# / .NET MVP]]

I mean the following construct:

In VB .NET:

Private Sub DoSomething() Implements IFirst.DoSomething, ISecond.DoSomething

In C# we can only:

void IFirst.DoSomething()
void ISecond.DoSomething()

if we do not want to expose the DoSomething() method as a part of the public
class interface.

--
Dmitriy Lapshin [C# / .NET MVP]
X-Unity Test Studio
http://x-unity.miik.com.ua/teststudio.aspx
Bring the power of unit testing to VS .NET IDE

"Frank Oquendo" <fr****@acadxpin.com> wrote in message
news:e7**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

Dmitriy Lapshin [C# / .NET MVP] wrote:

For example, in VB .NET a single class method can implement several
interface methods. This trick, as fas as I know, is not possible in
C#.

I don't understand this statement. C# classes can implement more than
one interface and the methods contained therein so obviously you're
talking about something else.

--
There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who
don't.

http://code.acadx.com
(Pull the pin to reply)

[Osvaldo Bisignano]

I would add Indexers. For example when you do this

Row("FieldName")="jajaja"
this is the .ITEM property of DataRow class. And this property is indexed by
a "Key". Indexers are available only in C#
In VB you should make a GetByKey method.

And in C# there is no
with object
...
end with

"Alexander Nenashev" <ne******@hotbox.ru> escribió en el mensaje
news:#T*************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

Yes, a good question.

For example are there differences in

- implicit/explicit conversions
- user-defined operators

?

i just haven't look at vb so maybe a quick guide could be provided by
someone
to help us avoid digging in vb specification?

[Matthew W. Jackson]

You certainly can do indexers in VB. Have you tried the Default keyword? In
fact, you can have named indexers, since all properties can take parameters.
While I wouldn't call this a "limitation" of C#, it is true that VB does
MORE than C# in this respect.

Matthew W. Jackson

"Osvaldo Bisignano" <va*************@yahoo.com.ar> wrote in message
news:Oh**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

I would add Indexers. For example when you do this

Row("FieldName")="jajaja"
this is the .ITEM property of DataRow class. And this property is indexed by a "Key". Indexers are available only in C#
In VB you should make a GetByKey method.

And in C# there is no
with object
...
end with

"Alexander Nenashev" <ne******@hotbox.ru> escribió en el mensaje
news:#T*************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

Yes, a good question.

For example are there differences in

- implicit/explicit conversions
- user-defined operators

?

i just haven't look at vb so maybe a quick guide could be provided by
someone
to help us avoid digging in vb specification?

[Rob Teixeira [MVP]]

Actaully, VB supports Properties with arguments, which is in fact, far more
flexible than Indexers - because you can have more than one per class for
starters.
To create a simple Indexer, just use the VB Default keyword on the property
and have at least one property argument.

-Rob Teixeira [MVP]

"Osvaldo Bisignano" <va*************@yahoo.com.ar> wrote in message
news:Oh**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

I would add Indexers. For example when you do this

Row("FieldName")="jajaja"
this is the .ITEM property of DataRow class. And this property is indexed by a "Key". Indexers are available only in C#
In VB you should make a GetByKey method.

And in C# there is no
with object
...
end with

"Alexander Nenashev" <ne******@hotbox.ru> escribió en el mensaje
news:#T*************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

Yes, a good question.

For example are there differences in

- implicit/explicit conversions
- user-defined operators

?

i just haven't look at vb so maybe a quick guide could be provided by
someone
to help us avoid digging in vb specification?

[Rob Teixeira [MVP]]

"Dmitriy Lapshin [C# / .NET MVP]" <x-****@no-spam-please.hotpop.com> wrote
in message news:uF**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Are there anything that i can do in one language and cannot in other?

For example, in VB .NET a single class method can implement several
interface methods. This trick, as fas as I know, is not possible in C#. In
fact, most of the differences between the languages are subtleties like this one. I think there is no fundamental task you can do in one language and
cannot in the other.

There are a few things each can do that the other can't (and I suppose you
can argue about how "fundamental" these things are). At the moment, VB can't
overload operators and can't use unsigned types natively (it can use the
primitive unitXX classes, for example, but not directly like their signed
cousins) - this one in particular is fairly odd, considering that VB
recently introduced shift operators. Also, VB can't directly manipulate
pointers without the help of classes in the system.runtime.interop namespace
and GC handles to pinned references (although to be fair, C# also requires
pinned references, though the syntax is slightly different).

At any rate, with the next version of VS, VB will be able to handle all
these features except the direct pointer manipulation AFAICT. Do note
however, that direct pointer manipulation is not considered part of the core
CLI, and must be marked as Unsafe code. However, VB can still manipulate
pointers, so in this case, it's not as if it can't be done, it will just be
different.
And finally why C# seems to be a sort of standard in industry?

I think because it has been initially designed for .NET while VB.NET is
rather an improvement to VB6.

Actually, if memory serves, C# was going to be an independant project, and
then got merged/morphed into the Common Language specs/framework as well.
However, as you mentioned, unlike VB, C# has no clear and direct
predicessor. It's another "C-like" language.

I'm not sure what the original poster means by industry standard. I'm
willing to wager there is far more code in VB than C# at the moment -
especially if you concider older VB/VBScript/ASP code and migrations
thereof. Fundamentally, if you are using .NET, you writing IL code. The
syntax that gets you to the IL (whether it's VB, C#, FORTRAN, or even COBOL)
is in essance slightly less relevant. So basically, instead of doing what
Sun did with Java - which was to create ONE master language everyone had to
learn - the .NET team gave programmers a choice of syntax. If the programmer
is more familiar with VB, then VB.NET will be his best choice to enter the
..NET world, while other programmers who are more familiar with Java/C/C++
will find it easier to use C#. As always, I recommend that everyone learn
both - they aren't entirely different, and the hardest part is learning the
framework (which they both share). This will make you a far more valuable
resource, and doesn't take much effort.

One thing to note in addition is that C# has been submitted to international
standards - which means that others can write their own implementation of C#
based on the official specification. VB.NET, on the other hand, is
proprietary property of MS. But that's about the only "standard" that you
can concretely quantify.

-Rob Teixeira [MVP]

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

<"Rob Teixeira [MVP]" <RobTeixeira@@msn.com>> wrote:

Actaully, VB supports Properties with arguments, which is in fact, far more
flexible than Indexers - because you can have more than one per class for
starters.

You can have more than one indexer per class in C#. You just can't have
more than one indexer with the same parameters signature.

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

[Rob Teixeira [MVP]]

You can have only one indexer in C#, though it can be overloaded.
That's not quite the same thing as having multiple (differently named)
properties with arguments in the same class.

You have to remember that properties in the CLI are actually methods (two
methods for each property if they are read/write) with a special meta tag
that makes them a property. In addition, one of those properties per class
can be labeled with the Default meta tag (assuming it has arguments). VB.NET
allows you to write directly to this paradigm. For each read/write property,
a method called "get_[PropertyName]" and a method called
"set_[PropertyName]" are created, and tagged as properties. Using the VB
Default keyword tags one of those properties as the default (so the compiler
understands which one you are calling if you don't use the property name,
but rather the array-style invokation). Note that VB allows you to use
either style of invokation for the default (with the name or nameless
array-style - which comes in handy when you can create more than one named
property statement with arguements). For all other (non-default) properties,
you must specify the member name.

In C#, you will always create exactly one Property (the Indexer), which
compiles to one or two underlying methods called exactly "get_Item" and
"set_Item" (depends on if it's read-only or not). You can change the
underlying method name only by using the IndexerName attribute, but I think
that's rather silly. At any rate, you can overload this property with as
many formal argument lists as you want, but you cannot create a seperate
named Property with an arguement list in the same class.

Just seems a little ironic that VB, (usually the more abstract and removed
syntax) in this case actually reads closer to what the underlying IL
produces and gives you the fully-functional deal, while C# is more limited
and demands bizzar syntax on top of it (for no good reason that I can come
up with). In VB, it's pretty straight-forward - all properties can have zero
or more arguments. This is consistant and easy to remember. In C#, only the
Indexer can have properties, and it's written differently from all other
properties.

-Rob Teixeira [MVP]

"Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <sk***@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@msnews.microsoft.c om...

<"Rob Teixeira [MVP]" <RobTeixeira@@msn.com>> wrote:

Actaully, VB supports Properties with arguments, which is in fact, far more flexible than Indexers - because you can have more than one per class for starters.

You can have more than one indexer per class in C#. You just can't have
more than one indexer with the same parameters signature.

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

<"Rob Teixeira [MVP]" <RobTeixeira@@msn.com>> wrote:

You can have only one indexer in C#, though it can be overloaded.

Oh, if you want to look at it that way, I agree. I tend to think of
different overloads as different methods/indexers, eg the class

class Test
{
public void Foo()
{
}

public void Foo(int x)
{
}
}

has two methods in my view, rather than one method with two overloads.
I can see the reason for looking at it your way as well.

<snip>

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too