Why doesn't JUnit provide assertNotEquals methods?

Question

Does anybody know why JUnit 4 provides assertEquals(foo,bar) but not assertNotEqual(foo,bar) methods?

It provides assertNotSame

Answer 1

I'd argue that the absence of assertNotEqual is indeed an asymmetry and makes JUnit a bit less learnable. Mind that this is a neat case when adding a method would diminish the complexity of the API, at least for me: Symmetry helps ruling the bigger space. My guess is that the reason for the omission may be that there are too few people calling for the method. Yet, I remember a time when even assertFalse did not exist; hence, I have a positive expectation that the method might eventually be added, given that it is not a difficult one; even though I acknowledge that there are numerous workarounds, even elegant ones.