How to compare 2 Arrays to Assert.Equals?

Question

I need to compare two arrays on Assert.Equals.

When I test the method in race it is right but the test does not pass.

Code:

public void SeparaStringTest() {
 RecebeComando recebecomando = new RecebeComando();
 string[] StringSeparada = {
  "A",
  "A",
  "B"
 };

 Assert.Equals(recebecomando.SeparaString("AAB"), StringSeparada);
 Assert.Equals(recebecomando.SeparaString("A A B"), StringSeparada);
 Assert.Equals(recebecomando.SeparaString("A-A-B"), StringSeparada);
}

public string[] SeparaString(string palavra) {
 palavra = palavra.Replace("-", "");
 palavra = palavra.Replace(" ", "");

 var comando = new string[palavra.Length];

 for (int i = 0; i < comando.Length; i++) {
  comando[i] = palavra[i].ToString();
 }
 return comando;
}

Answer 1

The command Assert.AreEqual compares as a reference, so that you can compare arrays or lists, you must use the CollectionAssert.AreEqual

public void SeparaStringTest()
{
    RecebeComando recebecomando = new RecebeComando();
    string[] StringSeparada = { "A", "A", "B" };

    CollectionAssert.AreEqual(recebecomando.SeparaString("AAB"), StringSeparada);
    CollectionAssert.AreEqual(recebecomando.SeparaString("A A B"), StringSeparada);
    CollectionAssert.AreEqual(recebecomando.SeparaString("A-A-B"), StringSeparada);
}

See documentation from Microsoft:

Assert.Areequal: https://msdn.microsoft.com/pt-br/library/microsoft.visualstudio.testtools.unittesting.assert.areequal.aspx

Collectionassert.Areequal: https://msdn.microsoft.com/pt-br/library/ms243763.aspx

Answer 2

First there’s a mistake there, Assert.Equals has the same behaviour as the method Equals of object, that is, this method checks whether two variables point to the same reference.

You probably want to use the method Assert.AreEqual, this will compare item by item of arrays and check their values.

I also took advantage and made a modification to leave the method SeparaString a little simpler.

public static string[] SeparaString(string palavra, char? separador)
{
    string[] comando;

    if(separador == null)
        comando = palavra.ToCharArray().Select(x => x.ToString()).ToArray();
    else
        comando = palavra.Split((char)separador);

    return comando;
}

The use would be

SeparaString("AAB", null);
SeparaString("AAB", '-');
SeparaString("AAB", ' ');

Answer 3

I managed to solve, in fact I had to change to Assert.Areequal the test was like this:

public void SeparaStringTest()
{
    RecebeComando recebecomando = new RecebeComando();           
    string[] retornoDoMétodo = recebecomando.SeparaString("AAB");
    Assert.AreEqual(retornoDoMétodo.Length, 3);
    Assert.AreEqual(retornoDoMétodo[0], "A");
    Assert.AreEqual(retornoDoMétodo[1], "A");
    Assert.AreEqual(retornoDoMétodo[2], "B");
}