When iterating over a collection of DataGridViewCells in a DataGridViewRow, I was testing for equality of a specific cell like so:
var transactionLogId = dataGridView1.Rows[dataGridView1.SelectedCells[0].RowIndex].Cells[0].Value;
if (dgvRow.Cells[0].Value == transactionLogId) {
// Snip
}
And to my dismay, it never entered the nested block. Though both equal the same (5177518), and both dgvRow.Cells[0].Value.GetType().Name and transactionLogId.GetType().Name are Int64, it doesn't work unless I append a .ToString() to both sides of the equality check.
Curious as to what I'm missing here. Thanks!
Operators are static calls, which means that overload resolution will resolve based strictly on the operand's compile time types.
In your case, overload resolution is resolving to the following operator overload:
==(object, object)
because those are the compile time types of the operands. The == for objects simply performs a reference equality check, that is, if both objects are the same object, which they clearly are not.
The same happens in the following code:
object o1 = 1;
object o2 = 1;
var equal = o1 == o2; //false
Using Equals in this case is the correct thing to do, because it is a virtual call and it will therefore resolve to the runtime type of the callee and give you the correct result.
Then why does this work when you call ToString() on both operands? Simply because the overload resolution resolves to the ==(string, string) overload implented in the string class which performs value equality.
UPDATE
Reading comments by Machine Learning there seems to be a misunderstanding concerning the reason why == is returning false in the OP's code. I want to clarify that boxing has nothing to do with it; consider the following example:
var str1 = "a";
var str2 = 'a'.ToString(); //to avoid string interning by the compiler.
var equals = str1 == str2; //true
object o1 = str1;
object o2 = str2;
equals = o1 == o2; //false
The observed behavior is exactly the same and there is no boxing/unboxing happening here.
They are both boxed values so the == operator will never be true.
GetType returns the type of the corresponding unboxed instances anyway.
You need to use Equals.
I have a condition in a silverlight application that compares 2 strings, for some reason when I use == it returns false while .Equals() returns true.
Here is the code:
if (((ListBoxItem)lstBaseMenu.SelectedItem).Content.Equals("Energy Attack"))
{
// Execute code
}
if (((ListBoxItem)lstBaseMenu.SelectedItem).Content == "Energy Attack")
{
// Execute code
}
Any reason as to why this is happening?
When == is used on an expression of type object, it'll resolve to System.Object.ReferenceEquals.
Equals is just a virtual method and behaves as such, so the overridden version will be used (which, for string type compares the contents).
When comparing an object reference to a string (even if the object reference refers to a string), the special behavior of the == operator specific to the string class is ignored.
Normally (when not dealing with strings, that is), Equals compares values, while == compares object references.
If two objects you are comparing are referring to the same exact instance of an object, then both will return true, but if one has the same content and came from a different source (is a separate instance with the same data), only Equals will return true. However, as noted in the comments, string is a special case because it overrides the == operator so that when dealing purely with string references (and not object references), only the values are compared even if they are separate instances. The following code illustrates the subtle differences in behaviors:
string s1 = "test";
string s2 = "test";
string s3 = "test1".Substring(0, 4);
object s4 = s3; // Notice: set to object variable!
Console.WriteLine($"{object.ReferenceEquals(s1, s2)} {s1 == s2} {s1.Equals(s2)}");
Console.WriteLine($"{object.ReferenceEquals(s1, s3)} {s1 == s3} {s1.Equals(s3)}");
Console.WriteLine($"{object.ReferenceEquals(s1, s4)} {s1 == s4} {s1.Equals(s4)}");
The output is:
True True True // s1, s2
False True True // s1, s3
False False True // s1, s4
Summary:
Variables
.ReferenceEquals
==
.Equals
s1, s2
True
True
True
s1, s3
False
True
True
s1, s4
False
False
True
== and .Equals are both dependent upon the behavior defined in the actual type and the actual type at the call site. Both are just methods / operators which can be overridden on any type and given any behavior the author so desires. In my experience, I find it's common for people to implement .Equals on an object but neglect to implement operator ==. This means that .Equals will actually measure the equality of the values while == will measure whether or not they are the same reference.
When I'm working with a new type whose definition is in flux or writing generic algorithms, I find the best practice is the following
If I want to compare references in C#, I use Object.ReferenceEquals directly (not needed in the generic case)
If I want to compare values I use EqualityComparer<T>.Default
In some cases when I feel the usage of == is ambiguous I will explicitly use Object.Reference equals in the code to remove the ambiguity.
Eric Lippert recently did a blog post on the subject of why there are 2 methods of equality in the CLR. It's worth the read
http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2009/04/09/double-your-dispatch-double-your-fun.aspx
== Operator
If operands are Value Types and their values are equal, it returns true else false.
If operands are Reference Types with exception of string and both refer to the same instance (same object), it returns true else false.
If operands are string type and their values are equal, it returns true else false.
.Equals
If operands are Reference Types, it performs Reference Equality that is if both refer to the same instance (same object), it returns true else false.
If Operands are Value Types then unlike == operator it checks for their type first and if their types are same it performs == operator else it returns false.
As far as I understand it the answer is simple:
== compares object references.
.Equals compares object content.
String datatypes always act like content comparison.
I hope I'm correct and that it answered your question.
Firstly, there is a difference. For numbers
> 2 == 2.0
True
> 2.Equals(2.0)
False
And for strings
> string x = null;
> x == null
True
> x.Equals(null)
NullReferenceException
In both cases, == behaves more usefully than .Equals
I would add that if you cast your object to a string then it will work correctly. This is why the compiler will give you a warning saying:
Possible unintended reference comparison; to get a value comparison,
cast the left hand side to type 'string'
Because the static version of the .Equal method was not mentioned so far, I would like to add this here to summarize and to compare the 3 variations.
MyString.Equals("Somestring")) //Method 1
MyString == "Somestring" //Method 2
String.Equals("Somestring", MyString); //Method 3 (static String.Equals method) - better
where MyString is a variable that comes from somewhere else in the code.
Background info and to summerize:
In Java using == to compare strings should not be used. I mention this in case you need to use both languages and also
to let you know that using == can also be replaced with something better in C#.
In C# there's no practical difference for comparing strings using Method 1 or Method 2 as long as both are of type string. However, if one is null, one is of another type (like an integer), or one represents an object that has a different reference, then, as the initial question shows, you may experience that comparing the content for equality may not return what you expect.
Suggested solution:
Because using == is not exactly the same as using .Equals when comparing things, you can use the static String.Equals method instead. This way, if the two sides are not the same type you will still compare the content and if one is null, you will avoid the exception.
bool areEqual = String.Equals("Somestring", MyString);
It is a little more to write, but in my opinion, safer to use.
Here is some info copied from Microsoft:
public static bool Equals (string a, string b);
Parameters
a String
The first string to compare, or null.
b String
The second string to compare, or null.
Returns Boolean
true if the value of a is the same as the value of b; otherwise, false. If both a and b are null, the method returns true.
Just as an addition to the already good answers: This behaviour is NOT limited to Strings or comparing different numbertypes. Even if both elements are of type object of the same underlying type. "==" won't work.
The following screenshot shows the results of comparing two object {int} - values
I am a bit confused here. If the runtime type of Content is of type string, then both == and Equals should return true. However, since this does not appear to be the case, then runtime type of Content is not string and calling Equals on it is doing a referential equality and this explains why Equals("Energy Attack") fails. However, in the second case, the decision as to which overloaded == static operator should be called is made at compile time and this decision appears to be ==(string,string). this suggests to me that Content provides an implicit conversion to string.
There is another dimension to an earlier answer by #BlueMonkMN. The additional dimension is that the answer to the #Drahcir's title question as it is stated also depends on how we arrived at the string value. To illustrate:
string s1 = "test";
string s2 = "test";
string s3 = "test1".Substring(0, 4);
object s4 = s3;
string s5 = "te" + "st";
object s6 = s5;
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1} {2}", object.ReferenceEquals(s1, s2), s1 == s2, s1.Equals(s2));
Console.WriteLine("\n Case1 - A method changes the value:");
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1} {2}", object.ReferenceEquals(s1, s3), s1 == s3, s1.Equals(s3));
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1} {2}", object.ReferenceEquals(s1, s4), s1 == s4, s1.Equals(s4));
Console.WriteLine("\n Case2 - Having only literals allows to arrive at a literal:");
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1} {2}", object.ReferenceEquals(s1, s5), s1 == s5, s1.Equals(s5));
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1} {2}", object.ReferenceEquals(s1, s6), s1 == s6, s1.Equals(s6));
The output is:
True True True
Case1 - A method changes the value:
False True True
False False True
Case2 - Having only literals allows to arrive at a literal:
True True True
True True True
Adding one more point to the answer.
.EqualsTo() method gives you provision to compare against culture and case sensitive.
Really great answers and examples!
I would just like to add the fundamental difference between the two,
Operators such as == are not polymorphic, while Equals is
With that concept in mind, if you work out any example (by looking at left hand and right hand reference type, and checking/knowing if the type actually has == operator overloaded and Equals being overriden) you are certain to get the right answer.
This is due to value equality (equal method) and referential equality(== operator), as the equal method checks the values while the same == is checked the reference.
== operator overriding code available inside the string class on https://referencesource.microsoft.com/
so now it's easier to understand, the equal method also has 2 implementations one from the string class itself and one from the object class. its impact on performance as well I also run some basic code and try to understand the benchmarks.
I am sharing the results below Please correct or advise if I am wrong somewhere. there are 3 cases and I have run the same code for all the cases and this is the result.
case 1: here I am using string. equal method for comparing 2 strings and both the string have the same values. string.equals(a,b)
1st run:5608195 ticks
2nd run:5529387 ticks
3rd run:5622569 ticks
total ticks: 16760151
case 2: here I am using string. equal() method(overloaded one) for comparing 2 strings and both the string have the same values.
a.equals(b)
1st run: 6738583 ticks
2nd run: 6452927 ticks
3rd run: 7168897 ticks
total ticks=20360407
case 3: here I am using the == operator for comparing 2 strings and both the string have the same values.
a==b
1st run: 6652151 ticks
2nd run: 7514300 ticks
3rd run: 7634606 ticks
total ticks=21801057
class Program
{
private static int count;
static string a = "abcdef";
static string b = "abcdef";
static void Main(string[] args)
{
for (int j = 1; j <= 3; j++)
{
Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
sw.Start();
for (int i = 1; i <= 1000; i++)
{
checkString();
}
sw.Stop();
Console.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedTicks);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static void checkString()
{
for (int i = 1; i <= 100000; i++)
{
if (a==b)
count++;
}
}
}
The == token in C# is used for two different equality-check operators. When the compiler encounters that token, it will check whether either of the types being compared has implemented an equality-operator overload for either the specific combination types being compared(*), or for a combination of types to which both types can be converted. If the compiler finds such an overload it will use it. Otherwise, if the two types are both reference types and they are not unrelated classes (either may be an interface, or they may be related classes), the compiler will regard == as a reference-comparison operator. If neither condition applies, compilation will fail.
Note that some other languages use separate tokens for the two equality-check operators. In VB.NET, for example, the = token is used within expressions solely for the overloadable equality-check operator, and Is is used as a reference-test or null-test operator. An to use = on a type which does not override the equality-check operator will fail, as will attempting to use Is for any purpose other than testing reference equality or nullity.
(*)Types generally only overload equality for comparison with themselves, but it may be useful for types to overload the equality operator for comparison with other particular types; for example, int could have (and IMHO should have but didn't) defined an equality operators for comparison with float, so that 16777217 would not report itself equal to 16777216f. As it is, since no such operator is defined, C# will promote the int to float, rounding it to 16777216f before the equality-check operator sees it; that operator then sees two equal floating-point numbers and reports them as equal, unaware of the rounding that took place.
Note that there are two different types of equality in C#
1- Value Equality (For value types like int, DateTime and struct)
2- Reference Equality (For objects)
There are two basic standard protocols for implement equality checks.
1- The == and != operators.
2- The virtual Equals method.
The == and != are statically resolve, which means C# will make a compile-time decision as to which type will perform the comparison.
For instance the value-type
int x = 50;
int y = 50;
Console.WriteLine (x == y); // True
but for reference type
object x = 50;
object y = 50;
Console.WriteLine (x == y); // False
The Equals() originally resoled at runtime according to operand actual type.
For instance, in the following example, at runtime, it will be decided that the Equals() will apply on int values, the result is true.
object x = 5;
object y = 5;
Console.WriteLine (x.Equals (y)); // True
However, for a reference type, it will use a reference equality check.
MyObject x = new MyObject();
MyObject y = x;
Console.WriteLine (x.Equals (y)); // True
Note that Equals() uses structural comparison for struct, which means it calls Equals on each field of a struct.
Whether Equals() and == are the same depends on the implementation. Because C# allows users to set different behaviors for Equals() and == respectively.
class CompareTest
{
public readonly int val;
public CompareTest(int val)
{
this.val = val;
}
public override bool Equals(object obj)
{
return obj is CompareTest test && this.val == test.val;
}
public override int GetHashCode()
{
return val;
}
public static bool operator == (CompareTest a, object b)
{
return Equals(a, b);
}
public static bool operator != (CompareTest a, object b)
{
return !(a == b);
}
}
In this example, I made Equals() and == have the same behavior. But what if I make them different? For example:
public static bool operator == (CompareTest a, object b)
{
return false;
}
Equals() works normally but == will never works.
Furthermore, although I made them have the same behavior, but there is still one difference: which == function will be called depends on the left value:
Compare Test a = new CompareTest(1);
object b = new CompareTest(1);
CompareTest c = new CompareTest(1);
Debug.Log("AB " + (a == b)); // true
Debug.Log("BA " + (b == a)); // false! because it calls object's == function
Debug.Log("AC " + (a == c)); // true
Debug.Log("CA " + (c == a)); // true
When we create any object there are two parts to the object one is the content and the other is reference to that content.
== compares both content and reference;
equals() compares only content
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/584128/What-is-the-difference-between-equalsequals-and-Eq
==
The == operator can be used to compare two variables of any kind, and it simply compares the bits.
int a = 3;
byte b = 3;
if (a == b) { // true }
Note : there are more zeroes on the left side of the int but we don't care about that here.
int a (00000011) == byte b (00000011)
Remember == operator cares only about the pattern of the bits in the variable.
Use == If two references (primitives) refers to the same object on the heap.
Rules are same whether the variable is a reference or primitive.
Foo a = new Foo();
Foo b = new Foo();
Foo c = a;
if (a == b) { // false }
if (a == c) { // true }
if (b == c) { // false }
a == c is true
a == b is false
the bit pattern are the same for a and c, so they are equal using ==.
Equal():
Use the equals() method to see if two different objects are equal.
Such as two different String objects that both represent the characters in "Jane"
The only difference between Equal and == is on object type comparison. in other cases, such as reference types and value types, they are almost the same(either both are bit-wise equality or both are reference equality).
object:
Equals: bit-wise equality
==: reference equality
string: (equals and == are the same for string, but if one of string changed to object, then comparison result will be different)
Equals: bit-wise equality
== : bit-wise equality
See here for more explanation.
I have two objects in C# and don't know if it's Boolean or any other type.
However when I try to compare those C# fails to give the right answer.
I have tried the same code with VB.NET and that did it !
Can anyone tell me how to fix this if there is a solution ?
C#:
object a = true;
object b = true;
object c = false;
if (a == b) c = true;
MessageBox.Show(c.ToString()); //Outputs False !!
VB.NET:
Dim a As Object = True
Dim b As Object = True
Dim c As Object = False
If (a = b) Then c = True
MessageBox.Show(c.ToString()) '// Outputs True
In C#, the == operator (when applied to reference type expressions) performs a reference equality check unless it's overloaded. You're comparing two references which are the result of boxing conversions, so those are distinct references.
EDIT: With types which overload the ==, you can get different behaviour - but that's based on the compile-time type of the expressions. For example, string provides ==(string, string):
string x = new string("foo".ToCharArray());
string y = new string("foo".ToCharArray());
Console.WriteLine(x == y); // True
Console.WriteLine((object) x == (object) y); // False
Here the first comparison is using the overloaded operator, but the second is using the "default" reference comparison.
In VB, the = operator does a whole lot more work - it's not even just equivalent to using object.Equals(x, y), as things like Option Compare can affect how text is compared.
Fundamentally the operators don't work the same way and aren't intended to work the same way.
In addition to Jon’s answer which explains the C# side of things, here’s what VB does:
In VB with Option Strict On, a comparison via = always tests for value equality and never for reference equality. In fact, your code doesn’t even compile once you switch Option Strict On because System.Object doesn’t define an Operator=. You should always have this option on, it catches bugs more effectively than a venus flytrap (although in your particular case this lax behaviour actually does the right thing).1
In fact, with Option Strict On, VB behaves even stricter than C#: In C#, a == b either triggers a call to SomeType.operator==(a, b) or, if this doesn’t exist, invokes reference equality comparison (which is equivalent to calling object.ReferenceEquals(a, b)).
In VB on the other hand, the comparison a = b always invokes the equality operator.2 If you want to use reference equality comparison, you have to use a Is b (which is, once again, the same as Object.ReferenceEquals(a, b)).
1) Here’s a good indication why using Option Strict Off is a bad idea: I’ve used VB.NET for almost a decade, from before .NET’s official release until a few years ago, and I’ve absolutely no idea what a = b does with Option Strict Off. It does some kind of equality comparison, but what exactly happens and why, no idea. It’s more complex than C#’s dynamic feature, though (because that relies on a well-documented API). Here’s what the MSDN says:
Because Option Strict On provides strong typing, prevents unintended type conversions with data loss, disallows late binding, and improves performance, its use is strongly recommended.
2) Jon has mentioned one exception, strings, where equality comparison does some more things for reasons of backwards compatibility.
Object instances are not compared with the operator "==". You should to use method "equals". With "==" operator are comparing references, not objects.
Try this:
public class MyObject
{
public MyObject(String v)
{
Value = v;
}
public String Value { get; set; }
}
MyObject a = new MyObject("a");
MyObject b = new MyObject("a");
if(a==b){
Debug.WriteLine("a reference is equal to b reference");
}else{
Debug.WriteLine("a reference is not equal to b reference");
}
if (a.Equals(b)) {
Debug.WriteLine("a object is equal to b object");
} else {
Debug.WriteLine("a object is not equal to b object");
}
Results:
a reference is not equal to b reference
a object is not equal to b object
Now, try this:
public class MyObject
{
public MyObject(String v)
{
Value = v;
}
public String Value { get; set; }
public bool Equals(MyObject o)
{
return (Value.CompareTo(o.Value)==0);
}
}
MyObject a = new MyObject("a");
MyObject b = new MyObject("a");
if(a==b){
Debug.WriteLine("a reference is equal to b reference");
}else{
Debug.WriteLine("a reference is not equal to b reference");
}
if (a.Equals(b)) {
Debug.WriteLine("a object is equal to b object");
} else {
Debug.WriteLine("a object is not equal to b object");
}
Results:
a reference is not equal to b reference
a object is equal to b object
The issue is that the == operator in C# is a call to a static method (well, maybe not technically, but it can be though of as such) based on the compile time type of the two parameters. What the actual runtime types of those objects are doesn't matter.
Based on that compile time type the compiler will determine what implementation of operator == to use. It might use the default object implementation, it might use one of the numeric overloads provided by the language, or it could be a user defined implementation.
This is different from VB in that VB doesn't determine the implementation at compile time. It waits until runtime and inspects the two parameters that it is given to determine which implementation of the == operator it should use.
Your code contains boolean values, but they are in variables that are of type object. Because the variable is of type object, the C# compiler use the object implementation of ==, which compares the references, not the object instances. Since the boolean values are boxes, they don't have the same reference, even though their values are the same.
The VB code doesn't care what type the variable is. It waits until runtime and then checks the two variables, sees that they are actually of both of type boolean, and so uses the boolean == operator implementation. That implementation compares the values of the booleans, not their references (and the booleans will be unboxed before calling calling that operator, so a reference comparison doesn't even make sense any more). Because the values of the booleans are the same, it returns true.
Almost every time I want to check object's equality to null I use the normal equality check operation
if (obj == null)
Recently I noticed that I'm using the Object.Equals() more often
if (Object.Equals(obj, null))
and while reading about null checking I fount this Is ReferenceEquals(null, obj) the same thing as null == obj?
if (ReferenceEquals(null, obj))
Whats the difference? and where/when to use each one? plus I found that the last two checks look like the same according to their summary
Object.Equals(x, y) will:
Return true if x and y are both null
Return false if exactly one of x or y is null
Otherwise call either x.Equals(y) or y.Equals(x) - it shouldn't matter which. This means that whatever polymorphic behaviour has been implemented by the execution-time type of the object x or y refers to will be invoked.
ReferenceEquals will not call the polymorphic Equals method. It just compares references for equality. For example:
string x = new StringBuilder("hello").ToString();
string y = new StringBuilder("hello").ToString();
Console.WriteLine(Object.Equals(x, y)); // True
Console.WriteLine(Object.ReferenceEquals(x, y)); // False
Console.WriteLine(x == y); // True due to overloading
Now if you're only checking for nullity, then you don't really want the polymorphic behaviour - just reference equality. So feel free to use ReferenceEquals.
You could also use ==, but that can be overloaded (not overridden) by classes - it is in the case of string, as shown above. The most common case for using ReferenceEquals in my experience is when you're implementing ==:
public bool operator ==(Foo x1, Foo x2)
{
if (ReferenceEquals(x1, x2))
{
return true;
}
if (ReferenceEquals(x1, null) || ReferenceEquals(x2, null))
{
return false;
}
return x1.Equals(x2);
}
Here you really don't want to call the == implementation, because it would recurse forever - you want the very definite reference equality semantics.
Overloading the comparison operator, how to compare if the two variables points to the same object(i.e. not value)
public static bool operator ==(Landscape a, Landscape b)
{
return a.Width == b.Width && a.Height == b.Height;
}
public static bool operator !=(Landscape a, Landscape b)
{
return !(a.Width == b.Width && a.Height == b.Height);
}
Use the Object.ReferenceEquals static method.
Of course, in order for the == and != method to retain their full functionality, you should also be overriding Equals and GetHashCode so that they return a consistent set of responses to callers.
Try a.ReferenceEquals(b);
To check whether both points to same object. You should use Object.ReferenceEquals method. It will return true if both are same or if both are null. Else it will return false
I know its an old question, but if you're going to overload the == or Object.Equals method, you should also overload the reverse operator !=.
And in this case, since you're comparing internal numbers, you should overload the other comparison operators <, >, <=, >=.
People who consume your class in the future, whether it be third-party consumers, or developers who take over your code, might use something like CodeRush or Refactor, that'll automatically "flip" the logic (also called reversing the conditional) and then flatten it, to break out of the 25 nested if's syndrome. If their code does that, and you've overloaded the == operator without overloading the != operator, it could change the intended meaning of your code.