How to compare two arrays of bytes [duplicate]

Question

I have two byte arrays with the exact same content. I tried:

if (bytearray1 == bytearray2) {...} else {...}

and

if (Array.Equals(bytearray1, bytearray2)) {....} else {...}

All time it goes to the else! I don't know why! I checked both arrays manually several times!!!

Answer 1

Try using the SequenceEqual extension method. For example:

byte[] a1 = new byte[] { 1, 2, 3 };
byte[] a2 = new byte[] { 1, 2, 3 };
bool areEqual = a1.SequenceEqual(a2); // true

Answer 2

The == operator compares by reference; those are two different instances.

Array.Equals is really Object.Equals, which calls the instances Equals method.
Since arrays do not override Equals(), this too compares by reference.

Instead, you should call the LINQ SequenceEqual() method.