Why is .Equal False when I expect it to be true?

Question

The first line is true, the second is false. htmlOut and s2 are StringWriter objects.

    bool b = s2.ToString() == htmlOut.ToString();
    ret = htmlOut.Equals(s2); 

I was expecting true to be b, but why is ret false?

Answer 1

StringWriter does not override object.Equals.

htmlOut.Equals(s2);

is equivalent to:

object.ReferenceEquals(htmlOut, s2);

Answer 2

StringWriteruses internal StringBuilderfor recording. StringWriter.ToString()returns a string constructed with StringBuilder.

StringWriterdoes not cancel object.Equals(), therefore it StringWriter.Equals()compares if both objects are the same link, and not if their string representations are equal.

Answer 3

Equals . htmlOut Equals ?

, , , , , , .

Answer 4

htmlOut.ToString().Equals(s2.ToString());

it will return true