Could C# Overtake Java in TIOBE's Programming Language Popularity Rankings? (techrepublic.com)
- Reference: 0180092157
- News link: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/11/16/0516224/could-c-overtake-java-in-tiobes-programming-language-popularity-rankings
- Source link: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-tiobe-commentary-nov-2025/
TIO CEO Paul Jansen [2]said this month that "Instead of Python, programming language C# is now the fastest rising language,"
> How did C# achieve this? Java and C# are battling for a long time in the same areas. Right now it seems like C# has removed every reason why not to use C# instead of Java: it is cross platform nowadays, it is open source and it contains all new language features a developer wants. While the financial world is still dominated by Java, all other terrains show equal shares between Java and C#. Besides this, Microsoft is going strong and C# is still their most backed programming language.
>
> Interesting note: C# has never been higher than Java in the TIOBE index. Currently the difference between the two rivals is less than 1%. There are exciting times ahead of us. Is C# going to surpass Java for the first time in the TIOBE index history?
"The fact that C# has been in the news for the successive betas and pre-release candidates prior to the release of C# 14 may have bumped up its percentage share in the last few months," notes a [3]post on the site i-Programmer . But they also point out that by TIOBE's reckoning, Java — having been overtaken by Python in 2021 — "has been in decline ever since."
[4] TechRepublic summarizes the rest of the Top Ten:
> JavaScript stays in sixth place at 3.42%, and Visual Basic edges up to seventh with 3.31%. Delphi/Object Pascal nudges upward to eighth at 2.06%, while Perl returns to the top 10 in ninth at 1.84% after a sharp year-over-year climb. SQL rounds out the list at tenth with 1.80%, maintaining a foothold that shows the enduring centrality of relational databases. Go, which held eighth place in October, slips out of the top 10 entirely.
Here's how TIOBE's methodology ranks programming language popularity in November:
Python
C
C++
Java
C#
JavaScript
Visual Basic
Delphi/Object Pascal
Perl
SQL
[1] https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-tiobe-commentary-nov-2025/
[2] https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/
[3] https://www.i-programmer.info/news/98-languages/18457-c-could-overtake-java-in-tiobe-index.html
[4] https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-tiobe-commentary-nov-2025/
Re: surprised it took this long (Score:2)
oh, but they are hard ar promoting it, just go see some of the hype videos on YT they are pushing. the playbook is: some youngsters and make it look like tiktok
AI/LLMs and language translation (Score:4, Interesting)
As time goes by, I hope programming editors and IDEs start doing language translation via AI.
Say, someone needs to edit a C program but is not very skilled in it. They could use their favourite language (say, C#), to quasi-edit the source program (which would be presented as C# to them). C# code changes would be auto-translated to C in a manner that fits the source codebase's conventions. Aspects of the C program that have no C# equivalent could summarised and edited by AI dialog.
I wonder how TIOBE would measure this sort of work. As activity in the source language (C)? Editing language (C#)? Or both?
Re: (Score:2)
You can do this today. You can also write natural language to the same effect. I get the sense you've never used AI for programming.
lol (Score:1)
No I'm surprised it's even as high as it is
C# deserves to be much higher (Score:2)
Java's Mono library is a poor substitute for C#'s async/await keywords. Code is much simpler with that functionality built into the language.
Java's Optional library is a poor substitute for C#'s nullable features.
Java's import statements bring in a single type. C#'s using statements bring in an entire library, so there's less time wasted managing them.
I use Java because my current employer requires it, but that has only made me appreciate C# even more. For personal projects I'm still using C# everywhere I c
Re: (Score:3)
> Java's import statements bring in a single type.
import x.*;
Re: (Score:2)
To expand a bit. C# has been evolving quickly in recent years. Microsoft has been concentrating on making the language more succinct with less boilerplate code required. Java is horrible for the amount of boilerplate code it requires... to the point where someone created Lombok to literally rewrite code at compile-time to get similar features, but in a non-standard way.
They have also been concentrating on improving performance (I am not sure how it compares to the JVM, but each recent version of .Net has be
English (Score:2, Funny)
Just ask Claude or Replit to write your application. Coding is dumb. Software companies should fire all their autistic snooty computer science nerds and hire English majors instead.
It's a lump sum (Score:2)
Programming languages are used for different applications. So while you probably could write physical simulation software in PHP, a PHP user is way more likely to write some sort of web service.
Essentially most of what the TIOBE index shows is how much different areas of computation show up in search engine results.
Re: (Score:2)
> Essentially most of what the TIOBE index shows is how much different areas of computation show up in search engine results.
not most, it's literally that:
> Basically the calculation comes down to counting hits for the search query
> +"(language) programming"
[1]https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-in... [tiobe.com]
besides "popularity" being hardly a relevant measure for language choice, that's how daftly they measure it, and no matter how often this gets pointed out every time this clickbait nonsense gets published, it keeps coming back. /. could at the very least add "... and guess what happened next" to the headline, that at least would be fun.
ok, there is the fun of watching opinionated fanbois vs haters erupt in dialectical flames, but that gets old
[1] https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/programminglanguages_definition/
What is the point of this survey? (Score:2)
What is the point of this survey? How is one supposed to use this information?
I mean, saying that Java is "more popular" than SQL is of limited value, other than suggesting people are doing less database work than database work. The people who answer "SQL" are not necessarily saying they like it better than Java. It just means they do a lot of database work.
Besides that, one may not have a choice as to what to use. For example, they work in a "Java shop", well, they're using Java and not C. Not their choic
Re: (Score:2)
"More popular" means more used, not more liked. To determine "more liked", a human survey is needed, where humans answer a questionnaire. stackoverflow does such a survey.
Wouldn't be surprising... (Score:2)
Java is adopting a lot of C# features, with varying success[1]. As such, more developers are seeing the advantages of those features so why not just use C# where it is way more refined. The cross-platform story is pretty complete. The runtime and the tooling. VS Code works. IntelliJ fans have Rider. The dotnet command tool does the things you need it to.
Some things in Java are just clunky. Building and package management can really become a nightmare. You have choices where you don't really want them.
Micros
Engineers do C#, (Score:2)
computer scientists Java. That is how it is here in Denmark. The engineering schools are still Microsoft centric, while the computer science department always have used Unix.
can someone explain to me (Score:2)
What is the point of comparing languages as if they're sports teams?
I have never understood this. It seems like the most irrelevant thing.
Re: You are not an engineer. (Score:1)
programmers of some control systems have such concerns, such as power generation and distribution, medical, transport, military, manufacturing, and environmental hazard detection.
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't that the train driver? I thought the engineer is the one shovelling coal into the furnace and making sure that the tank doesn't explode?
Re: (Score:3)
If you thought that, you are probably American, and therefore badly educated.
In most of the world, an engineer designs engines - and/or their control systems. (Whether petrol, steam, or electric - or even hydrogen).
Re: You are not an engineer. (Score:2)
Legally I'm a software engineer despite not having a degree in engineering or computer science.
Not much I can do about it. That's my job title and what I put down when I am told to provide accurate information to a government agency.
You may certainly petition the legislature of my state in order to force my employer to change their job titles. But it's out of my hands (I also do not care)