Difference Between C and C++ Programming Languages(C vs C++) 

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What is C Programming Language? 

C is a structural or procedural oriented programming language which is portable and used in various applications. C was developed by Dennis Ritchie at AT & T Bell Laboratories. C is the basic programming language that can be used to develop from the operating systems (like Windows) to complex programs like Oracle database, Git, Python interpreter, and many more. C programming language is the base for other programming languages. If we know the C language, then we can easily learn other programming languages. It contains some additional features that make it unique from other programming languages.

What is C++ Programming Language?

C++ is an object-oriented programming language. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA, in the early 1980’s. Stroustrup, an admirer of Simula67 and a strong supporter of C, wanted to combine the best of both the languages and create a more powerful language that could support object-oriented programming features and still retain the power and elegance of C. The result was C++. Therefore, C++ is an extension of C with a major addition of the class construct feature of Simula67. Since the class was a major addition to the original C language, Stroustrup initially called the new language ‘C with classes’. However, later in 1983, the name was changed to C++. The idea of C++ comes from the C increment operator ++, thereby suggesting that C++ is an augmented version of C. C+ + is a superset of C. Almost all C programs are also C++ programs. However, there are a few minor differences that will prevent a C program to run under C++ complier. We shall see these differences discussed in this article.

Difference Between C and C++ Programming Languages

C++ is an extension of C language. It is a proper superset of C language. This means that a C++ compiler can compile programs written in C language. However, the reverse is not true. A C++ compiler can understand all the keywords that a C compiler can understand. Again, the reverse is not true. Decision-making constructs, looping constructs, structures, functions, etc. are written in exactly the same way in C++ as they are in C language. Apart from the keywords that implement these common programming constructs, C++ provides a number of additional keywords and language constructs that enable it to implement the object-oriented paradigm.

The most important facilities that C++ adds on to C are classes, inheritance, function overloading and operator overloading. These features enable creating of abstract data types, inherit properties from existing data types and support polymorphism, thereby making C++ a truly object-oriented language. m More new features implement the features of OOPS, such as data hiding, data encapsulation, data abstraction, and a guaranteed initialization of data.

C++ is derived from the C Language. Strictly speaking, it is a superset of C: Almost the correct statement in C is also a correct statement in C++, although the reverse is not true. The most important elements added to C to create C++ concern classes, objects, and object-oriented programming. (C++ was originally called” C with classes.”) However, C++ has many other new features as well, including an improved approach to input/output (I/O) and a new way to write commands.

In fact, the practical differences between C and C++ are larger than you might think. Although you can write a program in C++ that looks like a program in C, hardly anyone does. C++ programmers not only make use of new features of C++, they also reemphasize the traditional c features in different portions than do C programmers.

This figure shows the relationship of C and C++.

Difference between C and C++ Programming Languages as followings are

• C follows procedural style programming and C++ is follows both procedural and object oriented programming.
• C follows top-down approach and C++ follows bottom-up approach.
• C does not support function overloading but C++ support function overloading.
• C does not support referenced variable but C++ support reference variable.
• In C printf(), scanf() is used for get input, output but in C++ cin and cout is used for getting input and output operations.
• Operator overloading is not use in C but Operator overloading is use for C++.
• In C Programs are divided into Procedures and Modules. But in C++ Programs are divided into Functions and Classes.
• C does not support inheritance but in C++ supports inheritance.
• Exception Handling is not easy in C. it has to performs using other functions. In C++ Exception Handling provides using Try and Catch Block.

Difference between C and C++ Programming Languages in tabular formats as follows bellow: