C♯[note 2] (pronounced as see sharp) is a multi-paradigm programming language encompassing strong typing, imperative, declarative, functional, procedural, generic, object-oriented (class-based), and component-oriented programming disciplines. It was developed by Microsoft within its .NET initiative and later approved as a standard by Ecma (ECMA-334) and ISO (ISO/IEC 23270:2006). C♯ is one of the programming languages designed for the Common Language Infrastructure. C# is built on the syntax and semantics of C++, allowing C programmers to take advantage of .NET and the common language runtime.[5]
C♯ is intended to be a simple, modern, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language.[6] Its development team is led by Anders Hejlsberg. The most recent version is C♯ 5.0, which was released on August 15, 2012.