What is the best way to check two List lists for equality in C#

Question

There are many ways to do this but I feel like I\'ve missed a function or something.

Obviously List == List will use Object.Equals() and re

Answer 1

I put together this variation:

private bool AreEqual(List x, List y)
{
    // same list or both are null
    if (x == y)
    {
        return true;
    }

    // one is null (but not the other)
    if (x== null || y == null)
    {
        return false;
    }

    // count differs; they are not equal
    if (x.Count != y.Count)
    {
        return false;
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < x.Count; i++)
    {
        if (!x[i].Equals(y[i]))
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

The nerd in me also crawled out so I did a performance test against SequenceEquals, and this one has a slight edge.

Now, the question to ask; is this tiny, almost measurable performance gain worth adding the code to the code base and maintaining it? I very much doubt it ;o)