Question

How chlorine reacts differently with metals and non-metals?

Answer 1

Chlorine reacts with metals to form ionic compounds. For example:
$N{a}^{+}+C{l}^{-}\to NaCl$ which is an ionic compound.
But when reacting with non-metals, which have electronegativity comparable to that of chlorine, ionic bonds are not possible. Instead, the compounds are mostly formed by sharing of electrons as in:
$C+2C{l}_2\to CC{l}_4$
In this, carbon atom forms one covalent bond with each of the four chlorine atoms.