Question

I am using XUnit framework to test my C# code.

Is there any assert method available in this framework which does the object comparison? My intention is to check for equality of each of the object’s public and private member variables.

I tried those alternatives but seldom it works:

1) bool IsEqual = (Obj1 == Obj2)
2) Assert.Same(Obj1, Obj2) which I couldnt understand what happens internally

Answer 1

You need to have a custom comparer to achieve this, when you compare objects otherwise they are checked on the basis of whether they are referring to the same object in memory. To override this behavior you need to override the Equals and GetHashCode method and then you could do:

Assert.True(obj1.Equals(obj2));

Here is an MSDN page abt overloading Equals method: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173147(v=vs.80).aspx

Also apt the comment on the question: What's the difference between IEquatable and just overriding Object.Equals()?