C#'s edge over VB [closed]

Answer 1

VB.Net has a root namespace and C# has a default namespace which is not the same. Because when you have a root namespace in VB.Net it will always add that before the namespace.

For example: if you have a rootnamepsace in VB.Net named namespace1 and then you add this to your file.

Namespace namespace1
  Public Class class1
  End Class
End Namespace

then you will have to refer to it as namespace1.namespace1.class1

in C# if you have a default namespace called namespace1 and you this in your file.

namespace namespace1{
  public class class1{}
}

Then you can still just refer to it as namespace1.class1

Answer 2

Since C# and VB.Net both compile into MSIL, both have nearly identical Performance, Capabilities, Libraries and Components. Reflection can deassemble MSIL code into either C# or VB.NET (or a number of other languages)

This basically leaves us with, C# looks a lot like Java and C++ which gives it more credibility.

Answer 3

I think Josh gave a good rollup on the language differences.

Tooling Support

There are however also differences in how Visual Studio handles these languages. Code Snippets are easier to use from the C# editor and the refactoring is better also.

The VB-editor simplifies intellisense by not showing all options at all times.

I'm sure there are more things, but those are the ones that I as a C#'er (doing very little VB) have noticed.

Answer 4

In C# you can have more fine tuned control over events/delegates. But you rarely need this.

There are a lot more code examples for C#.

In VB.Net it is (a lot) easier to use late binding. For example to COM objects (in C# from version 4.0).

• I use C# for 90% in my projects
• I use VB.Net for interop to Excel, etc

As soon as I know F# better, I will probably use it for the parts that F# is better suited for.

Answer 5

for the moment VB.Net has a very poor implementation of lambda expressions. Meaning that you can't do the neat things that you can in C#. Well you can, but it needs a very ugly workaround in most cases.

This is solved in VB.Net 10.0.

Answer 6

C# and VB are basically the same however there are some minor differences. Aside from the obvious grammar differences you have the following differences:

1. C# can call unsafe code
2. VB has optional parameters (Coming in C#4.0)
3. VB is easier to use when making late bound calls (Coming in C# 4.0) This and number make 2 make using VB to do office automation much cleaner.
4. VB has a bunch of "helper" functions and class like the My namespace; however, all of this are accessible to C#
5. VB is case insensitive

C#'s syntax follow a similar grammar to c and java, which make it a much more comfortable transition from those languages, where as VB can be more comfortable to VB users. As far performance, and libraries or components they are nearly identical.

As for which one to choose, unless you have a need to do unsafe operations, then choose the language which is most natural to you. After years of being a VB developer I loved not having to write If yadada then.....End If if (yadaya){....} saves my carpal tunnel a few extra keystrokes (Which can then be used on answering SO questions)

Edit

Just learned one more difference btw C# and VB is that VB supports filtered exceptions so you could something like this pseudo:

try
{
   //do something that fails
}
catch(Exception ex when ArgumentException, 
      ArgumentNullException, FormatException)
{
  //Only handle these three types
}

This should not be confused with the ability to do:

try
{ 
    //something that fails
}
catch(ArgumentException)
{ 
    //Log Error
}
catch(ArgumentNullException)
{
    //Log Error
}

In this case you are going to handle the exceptions differently in the VB world you could define one piece of code to handle multiple types of Exceptions.

Edit

Some more differences.

7. VB's Is operator compares two objects to determine if they are the same it compiles to the CEQ IL instruction where as C# compiles to isinst IL. So the following are equivalent statements

c# if (foo is FooObject){}

vb If TypeOf foo is FooObject then

8. Also as mentioned in the comments and I wish I could see them to give you credit but C# doesn't have a like parameter. You need to use the RegEx class.