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In C# , why Equals() method always check equality between two arrays by comparing the references the and not by comparing the content ? As a consequence, all methods calling Equals() in their implementation (a lot) does not work as expected with arrays (it does not compare the content) : Example : int[] array1 = new[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}; int[] array2 = new[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}; var u = array1.Equals(array1); //true var v = array1.Equals(array2); //false var w = Array.Equals(array1, array2); //false var x = (new List<int[]>(new int[][] { array1 })).Contains(array2); //false var y = (new int[][] { array1 }).Any(x => x == array2); //false var z = (new int[][] { array1, array2 }).Distinct().Count() == 1; //false A possible generic way to handle arrays (no mater the type) could be : In Object.Equals() : if both types to compare are arrays (of same length), enumerate items (always possible), for each item, call Equals() . If one of these calls return false , array are different (return false ) otherwise return true . Note : I know about SequenceEqual() , memcmp() and other ways to compare two arrays. My question is not about how to compare arrays. I just want to know why C # designers dont choose to implement a full array comparaison in Equals() method.

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