Overriding Equals method in Structs

Question

I\'ve looked for overriding guidelines for structs, but all I can find is for classes.

At first I thought I wouldn\'t have to check to see if the passed object was n

Answer 1

Thanks to pattern matching in C# 7.0 there is an easier way to accomplish the accepted answer:

struct MyStruct 
{
    public override bool Equals(object obj) 
    {
        if (!(obj is MyStruct mys)) // type pattern here
            return false;

        return this.field1 == mys.field1 && this.field2 == mys.field2 // mys is already known here without explicit casting
    }
}

You could also make it even shorter as an expression-bodied function:

struct MyStruct 
{
    public override bool Equals(object obj) => 
        obj is MyStruct mys
            && mys.field1 == this.field1
            && mys.field2 == this.field2;
}

Answer 2

struct MyStruct 
{
   public override bool Equals(object obj) 
   {
       if (!(obj is MyStruct))
          return false;

       MyStruct mys = (MyStruct) obj;
       // compare elements here

   }

}

Answer 3

Use the is operator:

public bool Equals(object obj)
{
  if (obj is MyStruct)
  {
    var o = (MyStruct)obj;
    ...
  }
}

Answer 4

I suppose, if one's using .NET 4.5, one can use the default implementation as noted in the documentation:

When you define your own type, that type inherits the functionality defined by the Equals method of its base type.

ValueType.Equals: Value equality; either direct byte-by-byte comparison or field-by-field comparison using reflection.

Answer 5

Adding to the existing answers.

You can still have nullable values if you append a ? after the struct name (this works for every value object)

int?

Casting is done also by calling (MyStructName)variableName

Answer 6

In case anyone's wondering about the performance hit of boxing the struct in a Nullable object (to avoid the double type check from is and the cast), there is a non-negligible overhead.

tl;dr: Use is & cast in this scenario.

struct Foo : IEquatable<Foo>
{
    public int a, b;

    public Foo(int a, int b)
    {
        this.a = a;
        this.b = b;
    }

    public override bool Equals(object obj)
    {
#if BOXING
        var obj_ = obj as Foo?;
        return obj_ != null && Equals(obj_.Value);
#elif DOUBLECHECK
        return obj is Foo && Equals((Foo)obj);
#elif MAGIC
        ?
#endif
    }

    public bool Equals(Foo other)
    {
        return a == other.a && b == other.b;
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        RunBenchmark(new Foo(42, 43), new Foo(42, 43));
        RunBenchmark(new Foo(42, 43), new Foo(43, 44));
    }

    static void RunBenchmark(object x, object y)
    {
        var sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        for (var i = 0; i < 100000000; i++) x.Equals(y);
        sw.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);
    }
}

Results:

BOXING
EQ  8012    7973    7981    8000
NEQ 7929    7715    7906    7888

DOUBLECHECK
EQ  3654    3650    3638    3605
NEQ 3310    3301    3319    3297

Warning: This test might be flawed in many ways, though I did verify that the benchmark code itself wasn't optimized in an odd fashion.

Looking at the IL, the double-check method compiles a little cleaner.

Boxing IL:

.method public hidebysig virtual 
    instance bool Equals (
        object obj
    ) cil managed 
{
    // Method begins at RVA 0x2060
    // Code size 37 (0x25)
    .maxstack 2
    .locals init (
        [0] valuetype [mscorlib]System.Nullable`1<valuetype StructIEqualsImpl.Foo> obj_
    )

    IL_0000: ldarg.1
    IL_0001: isinst valuetype [mscorlib]System.Nullable`1<valuetype StructIEqualsImpl.Foo>
    IL_0006: unbox.any valuetype [mscorlib]System.Nullable`1<valuetype StructIEqualsImpl.Foo>
    IL_000b: stloc.0
    IL_000c: ldloca.s obj_
    IL_000e: call instance bool valuetype [mscorlib]System.Nullable`1<valuetype StructIEqualsImpl.Foo>::get_HasValue()
    IL_0013: brfalse.s IL_0023

    IL_0015: ldarg.0
    IL_0016: ldloca.s obj_
    IL_0018: call instance !0 valuetype [mscorlib]System.Nullable`1<valuetype StructIEqualsImpl.Foo>::get_Value()
    IL_001d: call instance bool StructIEqualsImpl.Foo::Equals(valuetype StructIEqualsImpl.Foo)
    IL_0022: ret

    IL_0023: ldc.i4.0
    IL_0024: ret
} // end of method Foo::Equals

Double-check IL:

.method public hidebysig virtual 
    instance bool Equals (
        object obj
    ) cil managed 
{
    // Method begins at RVA 0x2060
    // Code size 23 (0x17)
    .maxstack 8

    IL_0000: ldarg.1
    IL_0001: isinst StructIEqualsImpl.Foo
    IL_0006: brfalse.s IL_0015

    IL_0008: ldarg.0
    IL_0009: ldarg.1
    IL_000a: unbox.any StructIEqualsImpl.Foo
    IL_000f: call instance bool StructIEqualsImpl.Foo::Equals(valuetype StructIEqualsImpl.Foo)
    IL_0014: ret

    IL_0015: ldc.i4.0
    IL_0016: ret
} // end of method Foo::Equals

Props to Roman Reiner for spotting a mistake that really wasn't making me look good.