I was looking through some source code for a class I was using, and found the following block of code:

if (provider.Equals("LOADEXTPROVIDER")) { OutputLine(" Assembly: " + providerAssembly); OutputLine(" Connection Class: " + providerConnectionClass); }

Now, the .Equals method has several overloads that take care of a variety of other potential tasks, but can anyone tell me why you would want to use this method for a textual comparison? Why not simply:

if(provider == "LOADEXTPROVIDER")

Are we just trying to accomodate varying coding styles, since we’re creating the method for other purposes as well? Is there actually a language out there that doesn’t support == (or simply = in farked up languages like Delphi)?