NUnit doesn't work well with Assert.AreEqual

Question

I\'m new to unit testing and NUit in particular. I\'m just typing some examples from the book which refers to Java and JUnit. But I\'m using C# instead.

The problem

Answer 1

I found it confusing that implementing the IEquatable interface, which also has an

Equals(T other)

method, posed me with the same problem as described above.

The only reason I chose to use the IEquaytable interface above overriding the Equals method was not to have to do the type check.

In the end I had to use the following code

public bool Equals(CustomTag other)
{
   return (other.Name.Trim().ToLower() == Name.Trim().ToLower());
}

public override bool Equals(object o)
{
    if (o is CustomTag)
    {
        return Equals(o as CustomTag);
    }
    return false;
}

but then I thought, why not just leave the IEquatable interface for what it is and only override the Equals method. (less code = better)

Answer 2

The problem is you're hiding Equals, not overriding it. Well done - your unit test has found a bug :)

Your code should be:

public override bool Equals(object obj)
{
    Money money = obj as Money;
    if (money == null)
        return false;

    return (amount == money.amount && currency == money.currency);
}

(This will prevent it from throwing an exception if you give it the wrong type, too.)

I've made the string equality test simpler too - operator overloading can be very helpful :)

By the way, you almost certainly want to:

• Change Currency to be a property, not a method
• Add an Amount property
• Probably change the type of amount to be decimal instead of int
• Make the fields private and readonly
• Seal the class
• Add operator overloads for == and !=
• Possibly add a * operator overload to do the same as Times
• Avoid string formatting when calculating the hash (there are dozens of answers showing better hash implementations)

EDIT: I've just reread that you're using an example from a book. Does the book really hide instead of overriding the Equals method? I suggest you get a new book, if so (unless it's being a deliberate example of when it's wrong to use hiding!)... which book is it?

Answer 3

I suspect your problem is that you haven't overridden overload the equality == operator. Under the hood the Assert.AreEqual is probably using ==.

See Operator Overloading Tutorial.

Update: I ran the NUnit test through the debugger and it does indeed use the Equals method and not the == operator.

Answer 4

You can write framework agnostic asserts using a library called Should. It also has a very nice fluent syntax which can be used if you like fluent interfaces. I had a blog post related to the same.

http://nileshgule.blogspot.com/2010/11/use-should-assertion-library-to-write.html