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VB.NET or C#? It’s an age-old argument. Well, not really, since .NET has only been around for four or five years. But it’s a classic debate among .NET developers. I’m not here to say which is better for you, but I’ve found some statistics that you might find interesting if you are trying to make a choice between learning one of these languages.

I looked at CodeProject, SourceForge, Freshmeat, CMSMatrix, Monster, and HotJobs. I also did my best to look at every .NET-based blog software available, in order to determine what is used more. Note the distinction: not which is better, but which has seen more use by more developers that I could find. In other words, I’m letting developers that are more experienced than I speak.

At CodeProject I clicked on 20 random code tutorials to determine which language was being discussed. At SourceForge and Freshmeat, both open source software sites, I filtered their available software by coding language and tallied up which language was being using by the open source developers. I searched for .NET based blog software and used CMSMatrix to find .NET based CMS (content management system) packages to determine what language was being used more often to make large-scale, free and commercial, 3rd party software packages.

At all of these locations, I dismissed completely any code, projects, or software packages that did not specify a language, or that used multiple languages. Since .NET allows for single applications to use multiple languages, a natural outcome is projects that use both VB.NET and C#. In these instances, it would require counting lines of code to determine which is language is more prevalent in these packages, and I’m not interested in doing that!

Then I looked up job results in major metropolitan areas. First at Monster.com, I queried for “asp.net vb.net” and “asp.net c#” in 200 mile radii of 10001 (New York, NY), 60601 (Chicago, IL), and 94102 (San Francisco, CA). I also looked up job results at HotJobs.com, with the same query phrases, with each of the previously listed cities and checking the box for “include surrounding cities.” I did not filter these for jobs asking for either/both languages, but took the search results at face value. There might have been listings for either or both languages, but since these results would appear in both searches, which would cancel each other out in a numerical comparison, I dismissed this potential problem.

I also looked for C# vs VB.NET preference in software books, but found that nearly all recent ASP.NET books included code in both languages.

Here’s what I found:

 
I don’t know about you, but these numbers seemed to me to agree with each other….

In the end, though, I’ll give you the same advice everyone else gives. Make your own decision when it comes to VB.NET vs. C#. In the end, they have roughly the same capabilities since they’re being compiled into .NET anyway, and you might have your own killer reasons to choose one over the other for your particular situation. A secondary goal, after all, is to not only be able to complete a project, but to do so quickly and efficiently. Pick the language you are most efficient in.

But, if you’re looking for which language has the most resources online, C# looks like a good bet. C# also looks good if you are wanting to use (and extend) a 3rd party package, or join or fork an open source software project. As for the job market, check the statistics for your own area as each area will have its own trends or major employers with their own preference, etc. (What, do you think I’m crazy, giving out career advice?)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2006 at 11:25 am and is filed under statistics, software, review, development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.