Nowadays Java and C++ programming languages are vastly used in competitive coding. Due to some awesome features, these two programming languages are mostly used in Industry also. C++ is a widely popular language among coders for its efficiency, high speed, and dynamic memory utilization. Java is widely in the IT industry, It is incomparable with any other programming language in terms of software development.
Let’s go through the various points to compare these popular coding languages:
Similarities between Java and C++
- Execution: At compile-time, Java source code or .java file is converted into bytecode or .class file. At runtime, JVM(Java Virtual Machine) will load the .class file and will convert it to machine code with the help of an interpreter. After compilation of method calls(using Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler), JVM will execute the optimized code. So Java is both compiled as well as an interpreted language.
On the other hand, C++ executes the code by using only a compiler. The C++ compiler compiles and converts the source code into the machine code. That’s why c++ is faster than Java but not platform-independent.
Below is the illustration of how Java and C++ code are executed:
Execution of a Java Code
- Execution of C++ code
2. Features: C++ and Java both have several Object Oriented programming features which provide many useful programming functionalities. Some feature is supported by one and some are not.
Below is the table which shows the features supported and not supported by both the programming languages:
Features | C++ | Java |
---|---|---|
Abstraction | Yes | Yes |
Encapsulation | Yes | Yes |
Single Inheritance | Yes | Yes |
Multiple Inheritance | Yes | No |
Polymorphism | Yes | Yes |
Static Binding | Yes | Yes |
Dynamic Binding | Yes | Yes |
Operator Overloading | Yes | No |
Header Files | Yes | No |
Pointers | Yes | No |
Global Variables | Yes | No |
Template Class | Yes | No |
Interference and Packages | No | Yes |
API | No | Yes |
- Application: Both C++ and Java have vast areas of application. Below is the application of both languages:
- Application of C++ Programming language:
- Suitable for Developing large software(like passenger reservation system).
- MySQL is written by C++.
- For fast execution, C++ is majorly used in Game Development.
- Google Chromium browser, file system, cluster data processing are all written in C++.
- Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, and Illustrator these popular applications that are scripted in C++.
- Advance Computations and Graphics- real-time physical simulations, high-performance image processing.
- C++ is also used in many advanced medical types of equipmentin like MRI machines, etc.
- Application of Java Programming language:
- Desktop GUI Applications development.
- Android and Mobile application development.
- Applications of Java are in embedded technologies like SIM cards, disk players, TV, etc.
- Java EE(Enterprise Edition) provides an API and runtime environment for running large enterprise software.
- Network Applications and Web services like Internet connection, Web App Development.
- Application of C++ Programming language:
- Environment: C++ is Platform dependent while Java is the platform-independent programming language. We have to write and run C++ code on the same platform. Java has the WORA(Write Once and Run Everywhere) feature by which we can write our code in one platform once and we can run the code anywhere.
Differences between Java and C++:
Parameters | Java | C++ |
---|---|---|
Founder | Java was developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems. | C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs in 1979 as an extension of the C language. |
First Release | On May 23, 1995 | In October 1985 |
Stable Release | Java SE 14 or JDK 14 was released on March 17, 2020. | C++17 was released in December 2017. |
Official Website | oracle.com/java | isocpp.org |
Influenced By: | Java was Influenced by Ada 83, Pascal, C++, C#, etc languages. | C++ was Influenced by Influenced by Ada, ALGOL 68, C, ML, Simula, Smalltalk, etc language. |
Influenced to: | Java was influenced to develop BeanShell, C#, Clojure, Groovy, Hack, J#, Kotlin, PHP, Python, Scala, etc languages. | C++ was influenced to develop C99, Java, JS++, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Rust, Seed7, etc languages. |
Platform Dependency | Platform independent, Java bytecode works on any operating system. | Platform dependent should be compiled for different platforms. |
Portability | It can run in any OS hence it is portable. | C++ is platform-dependent hence it is not portable. |
Compilation | Java is both Compiled and Interpreted Language. | C++ has only Compiled Language. |
Memory Management | Memory Management is System Controlled. | Memory Management in C++ is Manual. |
Virtual Keyword | It doesn’t have Virtual Keyword. | It has Virtual Keyword. |
Multiple Inheritance | It supports only single inheritance. Multiple inheritances are achieved partially using interfaces. | It supports both single and multiple Inheritance. |
Overloading | It supports only method overloading and doesn’t allow operator overloading. | It supports both methods and operators overloading. |
Pointers | It supports limited support for pointers. | It strongly supports Pointer. |
Libraries | It doesn’t support direct native library calls but only Java Native Interfaces. | It supports direct system library calls, making it suitable for system-level programming. |
Libraries | libraries have a wide range of classes for various high-level services | C++ libraries are comparatively low-level functionalities. |
Documentation Comment | It supports documentation comment (e.g, /**.. */) for source code. | It doesn’t support documentation comments for source code. |
Thread Support | Java provides built-in support for multithreading. | C++ doesn’t have built-in support for threads, depends on third-party threading libraries. |
Type | Java is the only object-oriented programming language. | C++ is both a procedural and object-oriented programming language. |
Input-Output mechanism | Java uses the (System class) System.in for input and System.out for output. | C++ uses cin for input and cout for an Output operation. |
goto Keyword | Java doesn’t support goto Keyword | C++ supports goto keyword. |
Structures and Unions | Java doesn’t support Structures and Unions. | C++ supports Structures and Unions. |
Parameter Passing | Java supports only the Pass by Value technique. | C++ supports both Pass by Value and pass by reference. |
Global Scope | It supports no global scope. | It supports both global scope and namespace scope. |
Object Management | Automatic object management with garbage collection. | It supports manual object management using new and deletes. |