== Operator

For predefined value types, the equality operator (==) returns true if the values of its operands are equal, false otherwise. For reference types other than string, == returns true if its two operands refer to the same object. For the string type, == compares the values of the strings.

expr1 == expr2

Where:

expr1

An expression.

expr2

An expression.

Remarks

User-defined value types can overload the == operator (see operator). So can user-defined reference types, although by default == behaves as described above for both predefined and user-defined reference types. If == is overloaded, != must also be overloaded.

Example

// cs_operator_equality.cs
using System;
class Test 
{
   public static void Main() 
   {
      // Numeric equality: True
      Console.WriteLine((2 + 2) == 4);

      // Reference equality: different objects, same boxed value: False
      object s = 1;
      object t = 1;
      Console.WriteLine(s == t);

      // Define some string
      string a = "hello";
      string b = String.Copy(a);
      string c = "hello";

      // compare string values for a constant and an instance: True
      Console.WriteLine(a == b);
      
      // compare string references; 
      // a is a constant but b is an instance: False
      Console.WriteLine((object)a == (object)b);

      // compare string references, both constants have the same value,
      // so string interning points to same reference: True
      Console.WriteLine((object)a == (object)c);
   }
}

Output

True
False
True
False
True

See Also

C# Operators | 7.9 Relational and type testing operators | != Operator