---
title: "Difference between Foundation and Core Foundation Framework?"  
description: "Difference between Foundation and Core Foundation Framework?"  
author: "Tarun Kumar"  
published: 2015-10-29  
updated: 2020-09-24  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/interview/22874/difference-between-foundation-and-core-foundation-framework  
category: "iphone"  
tags: ["iphone", "ios", "objective c"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# Difference between Foundation and Core Foundation Framework?

**Core Foundation** is a general-purpose C framework whereas Foundation is a general-purpose Objective-C framework. Both provide collection classes, run loops, etc, and many of the Foundation classes are wrappers around the CF equivalents. CF is mostly open-source, and Foundation is closed-source.

Core Foundation is the C-level API, which provides CF String, CFDictionary and the like.Foundation is Objective-C, which provides NSString, NSDictionary, etc. CoreFoundation is written in C while Foundation is written in Objective-C. Foundation has a lot more classes Core Foundation is the common base of Foundation and Carbon.

## Answers

### Answer by Tarun Kumar

**Core Foundation** is a general-purpose C framework whereas Foundation is a general-purpose Objective-C framework. Both provide collection classes, run loops, etc, and many of the Foundation classes are wrappers around the CF equivalents. CF is mostly open-source, and Foundation is closed-source.

Core Foundation is the C-level API, which provides CF String, CFDictionary and the like.Foundation is Objective-C, which provides NSString, NSDictionary, etc. CoreFoundation is written in C while Foundation is written in Objective-C. Foundation has a lot more classes Core Foundation is the common base of Foundation and Carbon.


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/interview/22874/difference-between-foundation-and-core-foundation-framework

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