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Difference Between C and Java – A Detailed Comparison

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Today, C and Java stand out as two major programming languages that are widely used around the world. C serves as a procedural programming language typically utilised for system-level programming; on the other hand, Java takes the role of an object-oriented (or data-oriented) programming language commonly used in developing applications at an enterprise level. C finds itself in the capacity of a general-purpose programming language- compiled time.

Conversely, Java operates as an interpreted programming language. The fundamental distinction between C and Java lies in their developmental approach. Like C adheres to a top-down methodology, Java takes a bottom-up stance toward developing application programs. In this guide, we will compare C and Java in-depth and see how they differ in features, syntax, performance, design, etc. C and Java are very popular languages so we will understand them in detail along with code examples and many other things.

What is C?

Developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs, C language is considered one of the early programming languages. It is referred to as a middle-level procedural programming language – which finds its usage in system-level programming, structured programming, and other features like low-level programming and high-level programming combined.

The C language’s type system is static – it’s highly effective and efficient at resource management, making it a top pick for embedded systems, operating systems, and system-level programming. Subroutines also referred to as “functions” but not in the sense of functional programming, house all executable code in C. While arrays are supplied as pointers, or the address of the array’s first item, function parameters are passed by value. In C language, the pass-by-reference is used for creating the programs.

Various programming languages like Java, JavaScript, C++, C#, etc., are created by deriving various features including control structures and other fundamental elements from C. These languages tend to blend the recognized expression and statement syntax of C with underlying type systems, data models, and semantics that might be drastically different, and most of them also express very similar syntax to C language.

C is used for building various things including:

Structured programming
Systems programming
Embedded systems
Game development
Operating systems building
Libraries (including MATLAB, GNU Scientific Library, etc.)

Features

C is a fundamental programming language that is being used and learned by every programmer minimum for one time to start their programming journey. C language consists of various basic features that everyone needs to understand for the future. Below are some of the key features of C language:

C is the easiest programming language to learn.
Because C is procedural, it executes programs according to a predetermined set of steps.
C uses the concept of pointers to give low-level memory access.
C has a wide range of operators and functions pre-installed.
C code is portable as it can be compiled and executed with little to no changes on different machines.
C is a very fast programming language known for its quick access time.
C language is modular and statically typed.
C uses malloc and calloc functions for memory management.
In C, it is feasible to gain low-level access to computer memory by translating machine addresses into pointers.
It provides a special function with an empty return type (void) in procedures, which are subroutines that do not return values.

Syntax

The given below is a simple syntax to write a C program:

#include <stdio.h> 

void main() {

printf("Hello World!");

return 0;

}

What is Java?

Java was created by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems. It is a high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language and first became available in 1995. Oracle took over the ownership of Java from Sun Microsystems later on. Even though the syntax itself is low-level, it still bears similarities with C languages. An advantage to using Java is that you do not have to recompile your code once written— this feature has made it widely used as one of the best languages for developing client-server applications.

Java, as we know, is platform-independent which means that regardless of the computer architecture, any Java code written is converted to bytecode that can be executed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Due to this platform independence feature, any compiled Java code can run on any computer that has a JVM. This ability is often referred to as “Write once, run anywhere” (WORA). Consequently, it makes learning Java harder than learning C.

Java programming language is used in building many applications, such as:

Large-scale enterprise applications,
Web applications
Android app development
Big data technologies
Gaming applications
Mobile Applications
Artificial intelligence
Business applications

Features

Java is the most popular object-oriented programming language that comes with various features and characteristics. Here are some of the key features of Java language:

Java emphasises more on object-oriented programming (OOP) principles such as inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation, and abstraction.
When Java code is generated, it produces a bytecode that can run on any computer that has the Java Virtual Machine installed (JVM), thereby it is a platform-independent programming language.
Java is known for building portable applications.
Java provides a strong error-handling capacity along with memory management.
Java supports the use of classes and objects while writing a program.
Strong memory management, exception handling, and security features like bytecode verification and an integrated security manager are all elements that make Java robust and secure.
Java allows for the simultaneous execution of two or more threads. Because of its extremely effective multithreading capabilities, it can be used in applications where high performance is required.
Java has a rich standard library and allows it to perform various tasks like file I/O, networking, data structures, algorithms, and graphical user interface (GUI) development.
Java offers an extensive collection of APIs.
Java is an interpreted language in which the Java code compiles and runs simultaneously.
In Java, the memory allocation occurs during runtime; therefore, a Java application can be constructed without a main method.

Syntax

The given below is a simple syntax to write a ‘Hello World!!’ program in Java:

public class MyClass {

public static void main(String[] args) {

System.out.println("Hello, World!!");

}

}

Design Philosophy

C’s design philosophy places more importance on simplicity, efficiency, structure, and direct control over hardware development. The features of C are intended to accurately match the capabilities of the targeted CPUs. Although its use in application software has been declining, it has been around for a while in device drivers, protocol stacks, and operating systems code. C is frequently used on a wide variety of computer architectures, from embedded systems and microcontrollers to the biggest supercomputers, and now in building different high-level programming languages too.

Java

Java’s design philosophy is guided by several key principles that emphasise simplicity, reliability, and platform independence. One of Java’s design objectives is portability, which calls for applications created for the platform to function consistently on any hardware and OS with sufficient run-time support. Some of the key principles include:

It was designed to be easy to use and accessible to a broad audience of developers.
Everything in Java is an object, therefore real-world entities can be used to represent in a Java program.
Java is known for its strong memory management, security features, error handling, and runtime checking.
It allowed multithreading in Java.
Using the Just-in-compilation (JIT), Java performance gets increased.

Performance

C is known for its performance as it has easy low-level access to the memory. C performs faster compared to Java because it is a statically typed language with low runtime overhead. C language works well in applications and real-time systems where low-level control and efficiency are crucial.

C is a small language and has fewer features compared to other programming languages. It also has direct control over memory allocation and deallocation which are useful for memory-handling activities that may be carried out with reasonable efficiency and predictable time. This feature of C eliminates the need to worry about irregular garbage collection events and results in predictable performance.

Example: The below example demonstrates the performance test using start and end time in C.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h> 

int main() {

// Declaring the start and end times

clock_t startTime, endingTime;

double timeused;

// Number of iterations

long long int n = 1000000000;

long long int sum = 0;

// Getting the start time

startTime = clock();

// Performing the number n computation

for (long long int i = 0; i < n; i++) {

sum += i;

}

// Getting the ending time

endingTime = clock();

// Finding the time taken

timeused = ((double) (endingTime - startTime)) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

// Displaying the results

printf("Sum of the n is: %lldn", sum);

printf("Time taken to compute the sum is: %f secondsn", timeused);

return 0;

}

Output:

Sum of the n is: 499999999500000000

Time taken to compute the sum is: 1.038515 seconds

Java

Java is generally slower compared to C due to its interpreted nature. The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) interprets the bytecode produced by the compilation of Java code. Java programs operate more smoothly because the JVM optimises and compiles the bytecode into machine code during runtime.

One part of the runtime environment that helps Java programs run faster is the Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler, which translates bytecode into native machine code when the application is running.

Example: The below example demonstrates the performance test using start and end time in Java.

public class TestExample {

public static void main(String[] args) {

//Use the nanoTime method to get the starting nano time

long startingTime = System.nanoTime();

// Perform a computationally intensive task

long sum = 0;

for (long i = 0; i < 100000000L; i++) {

sum = sum + i;

}

// Use the nanoTime method to get the ending nano time

long endingTime = System.nanoTime();

// Calculate the time duration

long performanceDuration = (endingTime - startingTime) / 100000; // Convert to milliseconds

// print the time taken

System.out.println("Time taken to compute the sum is: " + performanceDuration + " ms");

}

}

Output:

Time taken to compute the sum is: 779 ms

Memory Management

C is known for managing the memory and the objects stored in the memory. C programs have direct access to memory addresses with the help of pointers, which offers flexibility but also raises the complexity and reduces the chances of things like segmentation faults and memory leaks. C provides memory management in three ways:

Static memory allocation: In static memory allocation, objects have an extent as long as the binary containing them is loaded into memory. Here, the address space is provided at the compile-time.
Automatic memory allocation: In this, the storage of temporary objects on the stack is done, which is automatically released and made available for use once the block in which they are declared has ended.
Dynamic memory allocation: For dynamic memory allocation, functions like malloc and calloc are used in C.

Example: The example below demonstrates memory management concerning memory usage when running a basic program in C.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main() {

int n;

printf("Enter the size of elements to be inserted in the array: ");

scanf("%d", &n);

// Allocating the memory dynamically to an array of n integers

int *nums = (int*)malloc(n * sizeof(int));

// Check if memory allocation was successful

if (nums == NULL) {

printf("Allocation failedn");

return 1;

}

// Initialize and display the array elements

for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {

nums[i] = i + 1;

}

printf("The elements in the array are:n");

for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {

printf("%d ", nums[i]);

}

printf("n");

// Deallocate the allocated memory

free(nums);

printf("Memory deallocatedn");

return 0;

}

Output:

Enter the size of elements to be inserted in the array: 18

The elements in the array are:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Memory deallocated

Java

Memory management in Java refers to a process of allocating new objects and removing unused objects from the memory so that new object allocations after having space. Java objects reside in an area called the heap. Unlike C, Java manages memory using automatic garbage collection. Deallocating memory that is no longer in use is done automatically by the JVM, helping to avoid memory leaks and other related problems.

The elimination of the necessity for manual memory management by developers can lower errors and boost output. Note that JVM consumes more memory than the heap.

Example: The example below demonstrates memory management concerning memory usage when running a basic program in Java.

public class TestExample {

public static void main(String[] args) {

Runtime rT = Runtime.getRuntime();

// current memory usage

System.out.println("Initial memory usage on your system: " + (rT.totalMemory() - rT.freeMemory()) + " bytes");

// using a large array of 5 mil to increase memory usage

int[] arr = new int[5000000];

// Print memory usage after allocation

System.out.println("Memory usage after allocation on your system: " + (rT.totalMemory() - rT.freeMemory()) + " bytes");

// Explicitly request garbage collection

arr = null;

rT.gc();

// Memory usage after garbage collection through Java

System.out.println("Memory usage after garbage collection on your system: " + (rT.totalMemory() - rT.freeMemory()) + " bytes");

}

}

Output:

Initial memory usage on your system: 905720 bytes

Memory usage after allocation on your system: 20701968 bytes

Memory usage after garbage collection on your system: 703424 bytes

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Standard Libraries

Every C implementation comes with the most widely used C library, the C standard library. This library is defined by the ISO and ANSI C standards which is a small collection of standard libraries for system-level programming. It includes math.h, string.h, stdio.h, stdlib.h, etc. Also, character strings, memory allocation, maths, stream input and output, and time values are all supported by this library. The interfaces for these and other standard library capabilities are specified by several different standard headers.

Here are some of the common and most used C standard header files:

<ctype.h> (includes the functions to determine the type contained in character data)
<float.h> (includes limits of floating-point numbers)
<limits.h> (includes ranges of integers)
<locale.h> (includes localization utilities)
<math.h> (includes basic mathematics functions)
<stdint.h> (includes fixed-width integers)
<stdio.h> (includes the input/output)
<stdlib.h> (includes common utilities like memory management, program utilities, string)
<string.h> (includes string handling function)

Example: The below example demonstrates the performance of C when using <string.h>, <math.h> standard C headers.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <time.h>

#define ITERATIONS 1000000

#define STRING_SIZE 100

int main() {

// variables for storing the start and end times

clock_t startTime, endingTime;

double t;

// String manipulation performance test

char str1[STRING_SIZE] = "Hello";

char str2[] = "Vide";

startTime = clock();

for (int i = 0; i < ITERATIONS; i++) {

strcat(str1, str2);

str1[5] = '0';

}

endingTime = clock();

t = ((double)(endingTime - startTime)) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

printf("Time taken for string concatenation is: %f secondsn", t);

// Mathematical computation performance test

double result;

startTime = clock();

for (int i = 0; i < ITERATIONS; i++) {

result = sqrt((double)i);  // Calculating the square root of i

}

endingTime = clock();

t = ((double)(endingTime - startTime)) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

printf("Time taken for complete computation is: %f secondsn", t);

return 0;

}

Output:

Time taken for string concatenation is: 0.011116 seconds

Time taken for complete computation is: 0.002576 seconds

Java

Java has its collection framework called Java Collections Framework. An object such as the traditional Vector class that represents a collection of objects is called a collection. Java collection allows collections to be handled without regard to implementation details by providing a consistent architecture for representing and working with collections.

Java’s collection is like C++ STL (standard template library), often referred to as the Java Development Kit (JDK), is extensive and provides a wide array of classes and interfaces to support various programming tasks. The collections framework consists of collection interfaces, legacy implementations, wrapper classes, array utils, and many more things.

Here are some of the common and most used Java collections components:

lang (include classes and interfaces like functions, strings, threads, etc.)
util (include data structures like lists, sets, maps, etc)
io (include input and output through data streams)
net (include classes to use HTTP, URLs, etc.)
nio (include new input and output)
sql (include APIs related to JDBC (java database connectivity))
swing (for creating graphical user interfaces)
time (include LocalDate, LocalTime, etc.)

Example: The below example demonstrates the performance of Java when using the classes and objects.

// Define a Parent class vehicle

class Vehicle {

String speed;

Vehicle(String speed) {

this.speed = speed;

}

void drives() {

System.out.println("Vehicle makes a sound");

}

}

// Define a child class using extends

class Car extends Vehicle {

Car(String speed) {

super(speed);

}

@Override

void drives() {

System.out.println("Car makes crackling sound!");

}

}

// Define a child class using extends

class Bike extends Vehicle {

Bike(String speed) {

super(speed);

}

@Override

void drives() {

System.out.println("Bike makes crackle sound!");

}

}

public class TestExample {

public static void main(String[] args) {

Vehicle carSpeed = new Car("Mercedes");

Vehicle bikeSpeed = new Bike("Kawasaki");

carSpeed.drives();

bikeSpeed.drives();

}

}

Output:

Car makes crackling sound!

Bike makes crackle sound!

Use Cases

C is used for building high-performance applications. Systems programming is one of the use cases of C which is frequently used to create embedded system applications and operating systems. C is frequently used to implement libraries, interpreters, and compilers for other programming languages due to its thin layer of abstraction from the hardware. C is used to build web servers such as Nginx and Apache HTTP Server. There are a lot more use cases where the C programming language is used.

Java

Java is used to build enterprise-level applications as it provides a high level of security, integrity, etc. Java is used in tasks such as building large-scale enterprise desktop applications using frameworks like SpringBoot, android development, and web development (using Java Servlet, Java Swing, etc).

Community Support

C is a very old language that was built in the early 1970s and since then it has undergone various changes. With a large and active community, C offers an abundance of tutorials, resources, and libraries. There are various platforms like Reddit r/c, Stack overflow, etc., methods to connect and communicate with the community. C is still required to comprehend computer architecture and programming ideas and is taught extensively in academic settings.

Java

There are numerous methods to become engaged with the millions of individuals that make up the Java community. You may help Oracle by joining groups, writing technical papers, and other means to strengthen Java. Here are some of the common ways to get engaged in the Java community:

Active Forums and Communities by joining Java’s Stack Overflow, Reddit’s r/java, and Java Ranch.
Participate in Java conferences and events like JavaOne, and Devoxx.
Contribute to Java’s educational resources, including its extensive documentation, Oracle’s official resources, numerous tutorials, and courses.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages of C

Performance: C provides the best high-performance and optimised code that is needed for systems programming and other applications having a connection with the hardware implementation.
Libraries: C provides a rich set of libraries that has great community support. It provides a small set of libraries but can be extended by the developers.
Foundation language: C serves as the foundational language to build other different high-level languages that support the features of middle-level.
Portability: C is a highly portable language that can be ported across different hardware machines.
Low-level access: C has great control over the low-level memory to control the memory leakage, synchronisation, etc.
Easy to learn: It is the easiest language to get started in the programming journey.
Availability: It is widely available on every operating system in this world and with great community support.

Disadvantages of C

Error Checking: This makes error handling laborious since it lacks contemporary error-handling features like exceptions. This may make it more difficult to maintain and debug programs.
Manual Memory Management: As C relies on pointers for manual memory management, there is a risk of memory leaks and segmentation problems.
No Object-Oriented Paradigm: Classes, objects, inheritance, and polymorphism are examples of object-oriented programming elements that are not present in C language due to their procedural nature.
Complex Syntax: Because of its low-level operations and complex syntax, it may be challenging for novices.
Security Concerns: Malicious actors may find it simpler to exploit coding flaws in C due to its low-level access to system resources and absence of error checking.
Restricted Standard Library: The minimal standard library in C might restrict the functionality that developers can use, necessitating that they locate or construct

Advantages of Java

Portability: Java programs can operate on any device that has a JVM thanks to platform independence.
Object-Oriented: Java is an object-oriented programming language, which means that it places more emphasis on data and objects than on logic.
Rich Standard Library: Having a highly rich standard library, makes the development easier and requires fewer external components.
Security: Integrated security elements to create reliable and secure applications.
Automated Memory Management: Makes programming easier and lowers errors linked to memory.
Large Community: There is a lot of support and information accessible for developers, including tutorials, libraries, and tools, because Java has a vast developer community.
Multithreading: Writing programs that can execute many threads at once is made simple by Java’s built-in multithreading capabilities.

Disadvantages of Java

Performance Overhead: Because of automatic garbage collection and JVM overhead, performance overhead is usually higher for higher-level languages like C.
Memory Consumption: Because of the object-oriented features and JVM, memory utilisation is higher than in C.
Verbose Syntax: Java’s grammar might make it more difficult to learn than other programming languages, especially for beginners.
Fragmentation: There are several ways to implement Java, which might lead to problems with compatibility across various devices and platforms.
Restricted Low-Level Access: Because of abstraction layers, less appropriate for system-level operations and low-level programming.
Extended startup time resulting from JVM setup.

Key Differences Between C and Java

The given below are some of the key differences between C and Java programming languages:

Criteria	C	Java
Developed by	C was developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs.	James Gosling at Sun Microsystems.
Language type	It is a type of procedural language.	It is a compile-time language.
Typing	It is statically typed but weak language.	Java is a statically typed but strong programming language.
Syntax	The syntax of C is procedural-based with manual memory management.	The syntax is similar to C and C++, which is verbose.
Framework	C doesn’t provide any built-in framework therefore, it heavily relies on its standard libraries including headers.	Java provides a large number of Frameworks including SpringBoot, Hibernate, and many more.
Performance	C’s performance is high compared to Java.	Java is generally slower than C programming language.
Memory Management & Garbage collection	The memory is managed manually in C and the garbage collection is done using the functions malloc and calloc.	Java has a feature called a garbage collector, which collects all the garbage automatically using JVM.
Object Oriented Paradigm	C doesn’t support the OOP paradigms.	Java is known for the object-oriented paradigm and supports the features of inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation, etc.
Error handling	The error handling in C is done using manual checks and return statements.	Java handles the error very efficiently.
Speed	The development speed in C is generally faster due to compile time.	The development speed in Java is slower due to verbosity and compile-time checks.
Readability	Code is less readable as complex memory management syntaxes are used.	Code is readable for developers and programmers but not easier for normal people.
Multithreading	There is no multithreading built in C, but can be done using third-party libraries.	It supports native multithreading.
Platform	It is a platform-dependent language.	Java is platform-independent as it uses the JVM.
Use cases	C is used for systems programming, embedded systems, OS creation, etc.	Java is used in enterprise apps, Android, web apps, etc.

Conclusion

C and Java both are commonly used programming languages. They both serve different purposes and excel in different domains. They are used in various big companies for various domains including operating systems, game development, web development, etc. System programming and applications requiring high performance are best suited for C due to their low-level capabilities and performance. Because of its vast libraries, portability, and object-oriented approach, Java is a popular choice for cross-platform development, enterprise applications, and mobile applications.

In this article, we have seen a detailed comparison between C and Java on different parameters including design philosophy, performance, memory management, use cases, etc. The particular needs of the project, the required performance, and the development environment all play a role in which language to use—C or Java. Both languages can coexist in the different fields of software development because of their respective capabilities.

FAQs

What is the main difference between Java and C languages?

The main difference between C and Java languages is that C is a low-level procedural language while Java is a high-level object-oriented language.

Are Java and C both platform-dependent?

Java is a platform-independent language while C is a platform-dependent language.

Is Java built over the C language?

Yes, not only Java but various other programming languages including C#, JavaScript, etc., are based on C language fundamentals and features.

What are the benefits of C over Java?

Because C is a compiled language that does not require interpretation and is low-level code, it processes information more quickly.

Which is harder, C or Java to learn?

Writing small programs in C is simple because of its ease of use. However, Java makes it easy to construct apps because it comes with libraries and other resources. For somewhat complicated applications, C will always have more lines of code than Java because of the manual memory management and other functionalities.

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