C++ vs C

C++ started as an extension of C, and most C code still compiles in C++. But the two languages are now different, and C++ has much more.

Point	C	C++
Style	Procedural	Procedural, object oriented and generic
Classes and objects	No (only struct with data)	Yes
Function overloading	No	Yes
References	No (only pointers)	Yes (int&)
Templates	No	Yes
Namespaces	No	Yes
Exceptions	No	Yes (try and catch)
Strings	char arrays	std::string and std::string_view
Containers	You write them	STL: vector, map, set and more
Memory	malloc and free	new, delete, smart pointers, RAII
Input and output	printf and scanf	std::cout, std::cin, std::print
Boolean	Needs stdbool.h	bool is built in

The same program in both

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>

int main() {
    std::vector<int> numbers = {5, 2, 9, 1};      // C++ container, grows by itself
    std::sort(numbers.begin(), numbers.end());     // ready algorithm
    for (int n : numbers) {
        std::cout << n << ' ';
    }
    std::cout << '\n';
}

In C you would write the array, the size and the sort function by yourself (or use qsort).

Some C code is not valid C++

#include <stdlib.h>

int main() {
    int* p = malloc(4 * sizeof(int));     // fine in C, an error in C++ (no automatic void* conversion)
    free(p);
}

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