Help me to understand Equals() in c#

Question

Possible Duplicate:
== or .Equals()

why use Equals() and not use ==

    for (i = 0; i < names.Length; i++)
{
   if (names[i].Equals(targetName))
   {
      index = i;
      break;
   }
}

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/971954/difference-between-equals-and — Dylan Meador, Aug 16 '11 at 22:08

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 16 '11 at 22:16

2

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173147%28v=vs.80%29.aspx

answered Aug 16 '11 at 22:16

crlanglois

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score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

1

The == operator most often checks for memory equality.

If the two objects you are checking are objects (or pointers), then this compares the address that the object is at.

The .Equals() functions is implemented by classes to check for equality between two objects. This function (where implemented in a class) will check data values in the objects instead of the memory address they live in.

Some objects override the == operator (see the answer here), so both methods of checking for equality may work the same for some, but not all objects. Because of this, it's safer to use .Equals().

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Aug 16 '11 at 22:09

mopsled

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According to this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/362314fe.aspx Your statement is not true. – Chase Henslee Aug 16 '11 at 22:16
`==` can be overloaded to use other comparisons than referential comparison. String is once popular example of this. – CodesInChaos Aug 16 '11 at 22:18
Thank you, I've edited my answer to reflect this. – mopsled Aug 16 '11 at 22:19

Help me to understand Equals() in c#

2 Answers2