Question

I have the following scenario:

    public class SomeClass { 
       // Have some other data members as well  
       public int i ; 
    } 

    public class TestClass { 

        public bool SomeFunction() { 
             SomeClass a = new SomeClass(); 
             SomeClass b = new SomeClass(); 
             if (a == b) // this is where I am getting compile error
               return true; 
             return false; 
         } 

        public static bool operator==(SomeClass a, SomeClass b) { 
             if (a.i == b.i)
               return true; 
             // compare some other members as well
             return false; 
        } 
    } 

Is this possible to achieve in C#?

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

No, it’s not possible to override an operator from a class that is not involved in the operation.

---

You can make a class that implements IEualityComparer<SomeClass>, which can be used instead of the standard comparison in some cases, for example in a dictionary:

var x = new Dictionary<SomeClass, string>(new SomeClassEqualityComparer());

---

If you just want to use the comparison in your own class, you could make it a regular static method instead of overriding an operator:

public static bool SomeClassEqual(SomeClass a, SomeClass b) { 
  if (a.i == b.i) {
    return true;
  }
  // compare some other members as well
  return false; 
}

Usage:

if (SomeClassEqual(a, b))