Comparing two string arrays in C#

Question

Say we have 5 string arrays as such:

string[] a = {\"The\",\"Big\", \"Ant\"};
string[] b = {\"Big\",\"Ant\",\"Ran\"};
string[] c = {\"The\",\"Big\",\"Ant\"};         


        

Answer 1

        if (a.Length == d.Length)
        {
            var result = a.Except(d).ToArray();
            if (result.Count() == 0)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("OK");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("NO");
            }
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine("NO");
        }

Answer 2

If you want to compare them all in one go:

string[] a = { "The", "Big", "Ant" };
string[] b = { "Big", "Ant", "Ran" };
string[] c = { "The", "Big", "Ant" };
string[] d = { "No", "Ants", "Here" };
string[] e = { "The", "Big", "Ant", "Ran", "Too", "Far" };

// Add the strings to an IEnumerable (just used List<T> here)
var strings = new List<string[]> { a, b, c, d, e };

// Find all string arrays which match the sequence in a list of string arrays
// that doesn't contain the original string array (by ref)
var eq = strings.Where(toCheck => 
                            strings.Where(x => x != toCheck)
                            .Any(y => y.SequenceEqual(toCheck))
                      );

Returns both matches (you could probably expand this to exclude items which already matched I suppose)

Answer 3

Try using Enumerable.SequenceEqual:

var equal = Enumerable.SequenceEqual(a, b);

Answer 4

if you want to get array data that differ from another array you can try .Except

string[] array1 = { "aa", "bb", "cc" };
string[] array2 = { "aa" };

string[] DifferArray = array1.Except(array2).ToArray();

Output: {"bb","cc"}

Answer 5

You can use Linq:

bool areEqual = a.SequenceEqual(b);