When should I use Debug.Assert()?

Question

I\'ve been a professional software engineer for about a year now, having graduated with a CS degree. I\'ve known about assertions for a while in C++ and C, but had no idea t

Answer 1

Use assertions only in cases where you want the check removed for release builds. Remember, your assertions will not fire if you don't compile in debug mode.

Given your check-for-null example, if this is in an internal-only API, I might use an assertion. If it's in a public API, I would definitely use the explicit check and throw.