Defines methods to support the comparison of objects for equality.
(in mscorlib.dll)
Visual Basic (Declaration)
<ComVisibleAttribute(True)> _
Public Interface IEqualityComparer
Dim instance As IEqualityComparer
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public interface IEqualityComparer
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public interface class IEqualityComparer
public interface IEqualityComparer
This interface allows the implementation of customized equality comparison for collections. That is, you can create your own definition of equality, and specify that this definition be used with a collection type that accepts the IEqualityComparer interface. In the .NET Framework, constructors of the Hashtable, NameValueCollection, and OrderedDictionary collection types accept this interface.
This interface supports only equality comparisons. Customization of comparisons for sorting and ordering is provided by the IComparer interface.
For the generic version of this interface, see System.Collections.Generic..::.IEqualityComparer<(Of <(T>)>).
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune
The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
.NET Framework
Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0
.NET Compact Framework
Supported in: 3.5, 2.0
XNA Framework
Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.0
Reference