Visual Studio Unit Testing Assert.AreEqual Fails with Identical Expected and Actual Values
.net, c#, unit-testing, visual-studio-2010
Solution
Your test will be using `object.Equals`, which isn't overridden for arrays. In other words, this will print false:
var x = new[] { 0 };
var y = new[] { 0 };
Console.WriteLine(x.Equals(y));
You should use `CollectionAssert` instead for collections:
CollectionAssert.AreEqual(expected, actual);
Problem
I am a total newb when it comes to Unit Testing, so please pardon me if this is total ignorance. But I can't get this method to pass a unit test even if I provide the exact same values for the expected and actual. When I set breakpoints and step through, I have confirmed that both expected and actual variables are a string array containing two items, blah and blah. But the test still fails every time stating that "Assert.AreEqual failed. Expected: System.String[] Actual:System.String[]" ``` namespace TestProject1 { public class Testing { public string[] PMDate(string lastPm) { if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(lastPm)) return new []{"blah", "blah"}; string[] results = lastPm.Split(new[] {" "}, StringSplitOptions.None); if (results.Length < 2) return new[] {"blah", "blah"}; return results; } } [TestClass()] public class UnitTest1 { [TestMethod()] public void PmDateTest() { Testing test = new Testing(); string[] expected = test.PMDate("01/01/1900"); string[] actual = test.PMDate("01/01/1900"); Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual); } } ``` }