Explain the functioning of MSIL ( Microsoft Intermediate Language )

A .NET programming language (C#, VB.NET, J# etc.) does not compile into executable code; instead it compiles into an intermediate code called Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL). As a programmer one need not worry about the syntax of MSIL - since our source code in automatically converted to MSIL. The MSIL code is then send to the CLR (Common Language Runtime) that converts the code to machine language which is then run on the host machine.

MSIL is similar to Java Byte code. A Java program is compiled into Java Byte code (the .class file) by a Java compiler, the class file is then sent to JVM which converts it into the host machine language.