.NET Framework - .NET Interview Questions and Answers

CLS is a set of basic rules, which must be followed by each .NET language to be a .NET- compliant language. It enables interoperability between two .NET-compliant languages. CLS is a subset of CTS; therefore, the languages supported by CLS can use each other's class libraries similar to their own. Application programming interfaces (APIs), which are designed by following the rules defined in CLS can be used by all .NET-compliant languages.

The JIT compiler is an important element of CLR, which loads MSIL on target machines for execution. The MSIL is stored in .NET assemblies after the developer has compiled the code written in any .NET-compliant programming language, such as Visual Basic and C#.

JIT compiler translates the MSIL code of an assembly and uses the CPU architecture of the target machine to execute a .NET application. It also stores the resulting native code so that it is accessible for subsequent calls. If a code executing on a target machine calls a non-native method, the JIT compiler converts the MSIL of that method into native code. JIT compiler also enforces type-safety in runtime environment of .NET Framework. It checks for the values that are passed to parameters of any method.

For example, the JIT compiler detects any event, if a user tries to assign a 32-bit value to a parameter that can only accept 8-bit value.

String and StringBuilder classes are used to store string values but the difference in them is that String is immutable (read only) by nature, because a value once assigned to a String object cannot be changed after its creation. When the value in the String object is modified, a new object is created, in memory, with a new value assigned to the String object. On the other hand, the StringBuilder class is mutable, as it occupies the same space even if you change the value. The StringBuilder class is more efficient where you have to perform a large amount of string manipulation.

CLR provides an environment to execute .NET applications on target machines. CLR is also a common runtime environment for all .NET code irrespective of their programming language, as the compilers of respective language in .NET Framework convert every source code into a common language known as MSIL or IL (Intermediate Language).

CLR also provides various services to execute processes, such as memory management service and security services. CLR performs various tasks to manage the execution process of .NET applications.

The responsibilities of CLR are listed as follows:

• Automatic memory management
• Garbage Collection
• Code Access Security
• Code verification
• JIT compilation of .NET code

There is no difference between int and int32. System.Int32 is a .NET Class and int is an alias name for System.Int32.