There are many object-oriented languages out in the market. Programming languages like Java, C++, Smalltalk and Eiffel all offer different implementations of object-oriented approach to programming. The shortcomings of C++ came from a design goal that the language should be compatible with C. Hence it has many of C's shortcomings.
C# on the other hand was designed from scratch and with a view of a common operating environment, which is the .Net platform. C# addresses some of the common problems plaguing C++ developers and class designers.
C# is an object-oriented programming language and is a good language to use for beginners wanting to learning the concepts of object-orientation. To qualify as an object-oriented language, there are three main concepts that a programming language must support -
Abstraction, Inheritance and Encapsulation.
Abstraction is the ability of a programming language to define internal types and be able to control external access to the types. C# has similar abstraction technique to Java and C++.
Listing 1 is an example of a class that captures essential information about an employee.
Listing 1
class Employee {
// -- Attributes
// --
public int EmployeeID;
public string Name;
public bool Married;
public int Status;
public decimal Salary;
}
Abstraction allows us to model real-world objects by defining their characteristics and attributes. In C, you would represent Listing 1 using struct. However, this as far as you can stretch C's functionality. A common problem among C programmers is that functions are all over the place. It is impossible in C to group functions that relate to particular type.
Encapsulation enables programmers to group actions together with their respective owners. Using our Employee class, we might need a function that would calculate tax based on a given salary. In C, you would write something like Listing 2.
In C#, we can write a function called Tax() and associate it to the Employee class.
Listing 3
