What's the difference between Assert.AreNotEqual and Assert.AreNotSame?

Question

In C#, what\'s the difference between

Assert.AreNotEqual

and

Assert.AreNotSame

Answer 1

Assert.AreNotEqual asserts that two values are not equal to each other.

Assert.AreNotSame asserts that two variables do not point to the same object.

Example 1:

int i = 1;
int j = i;
// The values are equal:
Assert.AreEqual(i, j);
// Two value types do *not* represent the same object:
Assert.AreNotSame(i, j);

Example 2:

string s = "A";
string t = s;
// The values are equal:
Assert.AreEqual(s, t);
// Reference types *can* point to the same object:
Assert.AreSame(s, t);