C# compare WebClient downloaded string always says inequal

Question

I'm trying to compare strings and I'm using a WebClient to download one of them and when I compare them, it always returns that they aren't equal even though they are.

here's the code

using System;
using System.Net;

class MainClass {
  public static readonly string test = "e";
  public static readonly string e = "http://raw.githubusercontent.com/SeizureSaladd/test/main/ok.txt";
  public static void Main (string[] args) {
         

    if(MainClass.test == new WebClient().DownloadString(MainClass.e))
    {
      Console.WriteLine("yay it works lol");
    }
    else
    {
      Console.WriteLine("uh oh");
      Console.WriteLine(new WebClient().DownloadString(MainClass.e));
    }
  }
}

if I run this, it says uh oh then returns e even though they're exactly the same.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

I'd start off by assigning the WebClient response to it's own variable so that you can use the debugger to inspect what value is being returned. var webResponse = new WebClient().DownloadString(MainClass.e); if (MainClass.test == webResponse) — Andy Stagg, Jun 17 '21 at 20:13
I'd also suggest following the documentation here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.net.webclient.downloadstring?view=net-5.0 and assign the web client to it's own variable as well. — Andy Stagg, Jun 17 '21 at 20:17

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 17 '21 at 20:17

1

http://raw.githubusercontent.com/SeizureSaladd/test/main/ok.txt returns: "e\n". You'll need to strip the trailing new-line character to get a valid comparison. So no, they aren't equal at all.

answered Jun 17 '21 at 20:17

glenebob

1,943
11
11

GitHub keeps adding the \n to the file which is annoying even if i delete the new line thanks for you help – SeizureSalad Jun 17 '21 at 20:39
It's not necessarily GitHub's fault: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/729692/why-should-text-files-end-with-a-newline It comes down to more of a standards thing. – Andy Stagg Jun 17 '21 at 20:53

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 17 '21 at 20:17

1

WebClient.Download string returns "e\n" - so "e" != "e\n".

You can simply resolve this with Trim method:

string downloadString = new WebClient().DownloadString(e);
if (test == downloadString.Trim())

answered Jun 17 '21 at 20:17

Anton Komyshan

1,377
10
21

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 17 '21 at 20:21

0

Because the response you get back is not "e" but "e\n"; If you download the file, then you see a extra new line. That is why it is not equal. The console will print this as a new line instead of "\n".

answered Jun 17 '21 at 20:21

Oscar Veldman

301
2
7

C# compare WebClient downloaded string always says inequal

3 Answers3