Programming Languages – Page 16

For our fifth installment of Hello World in Every Language, we're tackling Hello World in C#. At this point, we've covered many of the main industry languages such as Java, C, C++, and Python. Now, let's take on Microsoft's C#. C# Background As always, I took to Wikipedia to learn more about C#. Just like our other programming languages so far, C# is a general-purpose language. However, unlike our other languages, C# was designed for the Microsoft platform as a part of the .NET initiative in 2000. We'll see something along the same lines when we get to languages like Objective-C and Swift. Some notable features of C# include the virtual and var keywords as well as properties and namespaces. Because of these features, C# can seem like a nice cross between Java and C++. In fact, C# is often considered a clone of Java. Personally, I like C# much more than Java. I won't go into too much of a tangent, but C# has this beautiful feature that allows us to declare getters and setters in a single line. Just take a look: public string Name { get; set; } Now, we have a string which we can get and set directly and safely without having to implement our own methods. I love this syntax. Also, I love the fact that C# can be used to develop games in Unity. Beyond Android apps, I haven't seen many fun commercial uses for Java. Hello World in C# Now, we can implement Hello World in C# in a couple of ways. For simplicity, I'll share the minimalist approach but be aware that there are more complete ways to do this: class HelloWorld { static void Main() { System.Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!"); } } If you read the Hello World in Java tutorial, then this probably looks very similar. In fact, C# shares a lot of the same look and feel as Java. With that being the case, I'll only highlight the major pieces here. Before we can print, we have to create a class. Inside our class, we declare the main method. And inside our main method, we run our print command. The syntax and core libraries are a little different, but it feels eerily similar to Java. How to Run the Solution Perhaps the easiest way to run this solution would be to open up an online C# compiler. Just copy the code from above and drop it into the editor before hitting run. Alternatively, we can download Visual Studio or Mono to run C# locally. Of course, we'll want a copy of the solution as well. Refer to the manual of the various tools to run C#. As far as I know, there aren't any easy ways to run C# code from the command line, but I imagine it can be done. Sample Programs in Every Language With these first five articles finished, I can honestly say that anything past this point is new to me. Up next, I want to tackle Ruby. I hear that Ruby is also a general-purpose language, but it has a very popular framework used for web development. I'll be focusing on the general-purpose language which we can run locally on the command line.