Should one override equals method for asserting the object equality in a unit test?

Question

Let's say we are testing the result of a method by asserting the equality of all the properties of the result object with properties of an expected result object. Should we implement equals method and use Assert.AreEqual(expectedResult, actualResult)... But equals may mean something different in production code.

Which is the best practice?

• Asserting the equality of the objects through overriden equals method

or

• Asserting the equality of all the properties

Answer 1

I for one use custom assertions. There are two main reasons:

• don't force test concerns into production. This means that the meaning of equals in a test method might not coincide with the meaning for production code;
• equals may not be good enough for all the tests. Different tests will require different assertions, so you'll likely end up using custom assertions anyway.