Using assertions to compare two excel files

Question

Im using Visual Studio to create an automated test that creates two excel sheets. As a final check, I need to compare the content of these two excel sheets and ensure that they are equal. Is there any way to do this with assertions?

Something like Assert.AreEqual(file1, file2);?

Any help or guidance would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Thanks to Mangist for guidance on this. Ive written the following to compare two excel files:

public bool compareFiles(string filePath1, string filePath2)
    {
        bool result = false;
        Excel.Application excel = new Excel.Application();

        //Open files to compare
        Excel.Workbook workbook1 = excel.Workbooks.Open(filePath1);
        Excel.Workbook workbook2 = excel.Workbooks.Open(filePath2);

        //Open sheets to grab values from
        Excel.Worksheet worksheet1 = (Excel.Worksheet)workbook1.Sheets[1];
        Excel.Worksheet worksheet2 = (Excel.Worksheet)workbook2.Sheets[1];

        //Get the used range of cells
        Excel.Range range = worksheet2.UsedRange;
        int maxColumns = range.Columns.Count;
        int maxRows = range.Rows.Count;

        //Check that each cell matches
        for (int i = 1; i <= maxColumns; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 1; j <= maxRows; j++)
            {
                if (worksheet1.Cells[j, i].Value == worksheet2.Cells[j, i].Value)
                {
                    result = true;
                }
                else
                    result = false;
            }
        }


        //Close the workbooks
        GC.Collect();
        GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
        Marshal.ReleaseComObject(range);
        Marshal.ReleaseComObject(worksheet1);
        Marshal.ReleaseComObject(worksheet2);
        workbook1.Close();
        workbook2.Close();
        excel.Quit();
        Marshal.ReleaseComObject(excel);

        //Tell us if it is true or false
        return result;
    }

And using an assertion to check result:

Assert.IsTrue(compareFiles(testFile, compareFile), "Output files do not match.");