What is the difference between ionic bonds and covalent bonds?What are the similarities of the two bonds?

first off covalent bonds are much, much stronger than ionic bonds and take more energy to form. This also causes great energy to be released when a covalent bond is broken and very little energy when an ionic bond is broken. Put simply, ionic bonds are formed when two ions, for example sodium and chloride, are put together. The Sodium ion, being a positive ion, "donates" its lone "extra" electron to the Chloride ion so they can become stable. On the other hand is a bond where "sharing" is involved. Say two atoms of hydrogen are set to bond. The will each share their lone electrons so the first shell can be filled in each electron even though there is only 2 electrons to share. This is why the bond is much stronger than the ionic bond. I hope that helped, its confusing and im not the best at explaining it, sorry.