Runtime vs. Compile time

Question

What is the difference between run-time and compile-time?

Answer 1

(edit: the following applies to C# and similar, strongly-typed programming languages. I'm not sure if this helps you).

For example, the following error will be detected by the compiler (at compile time) before you run a program and will result in a compilation error:

int i = "string"; --> error at compile-time

On the other hand, an error like the following can not be detected by the compiler. You will receive an error/exception at run-time (when the program is run).

Hashtable ht = new Hashtable();
ht.Add("key", "string");
// the compiler does not know what is stored in the hashtable
// under the key "key"
int i = (int)ht["key"];  // --> exception at run-time