我已经在这里阅读了答案，我认为我应该添加一个重要的区别。使用断言有两种非常不同的方式。一种是作为临时的开发人员快捷方式，表示“这不应该真的发生，所以如果它发生了，就告诉我，这样我就可以决定怎么做”，有点像一个条件断点，用于你的程序能够继续的情况。另一种方法是在代码中假设有效的程序状态。

在第一种情况下，断言甚至不需要出现在最终代码中。您应该使用Debug。在开发期间断言，如果/当不再需要时，您可以删除它们。如果你想要保留它们或者忘记删除它们，没有问题，因为它们在发布汇编中不会有任何后果。

But in the second case, the assertions are part of the code. They, well, assert, that your assumptions are true, and also document them. In that case, you really want to leave them in the code. If the program is in an invalid state it should not be allowed to continue. If you couldn't afford the performance hit you wouldn't be using C#. On one hand it might be useful to be able to attach a debugger if it happens. On the other, you don't want the stack trace popping up on your users and perhaps more important you don't want them to be able to ignore it. Besides, if it's in a service it will always be ignored. Therefore in production the correct behavior would be to throw an Exception, and use the normal exception handling of your program, which might show the user a nice message and log the details.

跟踪。Assert有实现这一点的完美方法。它不会在生产环境中被删除，并且可以使用app.config配置不同的侦听器。 因此，对于开发来说，默认的处理程序就可以了，对于生产来说，您可以创建一个简单的TraceListener(如下所示)，它会抛出一个异常并在生产配置文件中激活它。

using System.Diagnostics;

public class ExceptionTraceListener : DefaultTraceListener
{
    [DebuggerStepThrough]
    public override void Fail(string message, string detailMessage)
    {
        throw new AssertException(message);
    }
}

public class AssertException : Exception
{
    public AssertException(string message) : base(message) { }
}

在产品配置文件中:

<system.diagnostics>
  <trace>
    <listeners>
      <remove name="Default"/>
      <add name="ExceptionListener" type="Namespace.ExceptionTraceListener,AssemblyName"/>
    </listeners>
  </trace>
 </system.diagnostics>

我不知道它在c#和。net中是怎样的，但在C中assert()只在使用- ddebug编译时工作-如果没有编译，最终用户将永远不会看到assert()。仅供开发人员使用。我经常使用它，它有时更容易跟踪错误。

我已经在这里阅读了答案，我认为我应该添加一个重要的区别。使用断言有两种非常不同的方式。一种是作为临时的开发人员快捷方式，表示“这不应该真的发生，所以如果它发生了，就告诉我，这样我就可以决定怎么做”，有点像一个条件断点，用于你的程序能够继续的情况。另一种方法是在代码中假设有效的程序状态。

在第一种情况下，断言甚至不需要出现在最终代码中。您应该使用Debug。在开发期间断言，如果/当不再需要时，您可以删除它们。如果你想要保留它们或者忘记删除它们，没有问题，因为它们在发布汇编中不会有任何后果。

But in the second case, the assertions are part of the code. They, well, assert, that your assumptions are true, and also document them. In that case, you really want to leave them in the code. If the program is in an invalid state it should not be allowed to continue. If you couldn't afford the performance hit you wouldn't be using C#. On one hand it might be useful to be able to attach a debugger if it happens. On the other, you don't want the stack trace popping up on your users and perhaps more important you don't want them to be able to ignore it. Besides, if it's in a service it will always be ignored. Therefore in production the correct behavior would be to throw an Exception, and use the normal exception handling of your program, which might show the user a nice message and log the details.

跟踪。Assert有实现这一点的完美方法。它不会在生产环境中被删除，并且可以使用app.config配置不同的侦听器。 因此，对于开发来说，默认的处理程序就可以了，对于生产来说，您可以创建一个简单的TraceListener(如下所示)，它会抛出一个异常并在生产配置文件中激活它。

using System.Diagnostics;

public class ExceptionTraceListener : DefaultTraceListener
{
    [DebuggerStepThrough]
    public override void Fail(string message, string detailMessage)
    {
        throw new AssertException(message);
    }
}

public class AssertException : Exception
{
    public AssertException(string message) : base(message) { }
}

在产品配置文件中:

<system.diagnostics>
  <trace>
    <listeners>
      <remove name="Default"/>
      <add name="ExceptionListener" type="Namespace.ExceptionTraceListener,AssemblyName"/>
    </listeners>
  </trace>
 </system.diagnostics>

简而言之

断言用于保护和检查契约式设计约束，即确保代码、对象、变量和参数的状态在预期设计的边界和限制内运行。

Asserts should be for Debug and non-Production builds only. Asserts are typically ignored by the compiler in Release builds. Asserts can check for bugs / unexpected conditions which ARE in the control of your system Asserts are NOT a mechanism for first-line validation of user input or business rules Asserts should not be used to detect unexpected environmental conditions (which are outside the control of the code) e.g. out of memory, network failure, database failure, etc. Although rare, these conditions are to be expected (and your app code cannot fix issues like hardware failure or resource exhaustion). Typically, exceptions will be thrown - your application can then either take corrective action (e.g. retry a database or network operation, attempt to free up cached memory), or abort gracefully if the exception cannot be handled. A failed Assertion should be fatal to your system - i.e. unlike an exception, do not try and catch or handle failed Asserts - your code is operating in unexpected territory. Stack Traces and crash dumps can be used to determine what went wrong.

断言有巨大的好处:

帮助查找用户输入的缺失验证，或高级代码中的上游错误。 代码库中的断言清楚地向读者传达了代码中所做的假设 Assert将在调试版本的运行时进行检查。 一旦对代码进行了详尽的测试，将代码重新构建为Release将消除验证假设的性能开销(但好处是，如果需要，后面的Debug构建将始终恢复检查)。

．.． 更详细地

Debug.Assert expresses a condition which has been assumed about state by the remainder of the code block within the control of the program. This can include the state of the provided parameters, state of members of a class instance, or that the return from a method call is in its contracted / designed range. Typically, asserts should crash the thread / process / program with all necessary info (Stack Trace, Crash Dump, etc), as they indicate the presence of a bug or unconsidered condition which has not been designed for (i.e. do not try and catch or handle assertion failures), with one possible exception of when an assertion itself could cause more damage than the bug (e.g. Air Traffic Controllers wouldn't want a YSOD when an aircraft goes submarine, although it is moot whether a debug build should be deployed to production ...)

什么时候应该使用断言?

At any point in a system, or library API, or service where the inputs to a function or state of a class are assumed valid (e.g. when validation has already been done on user input in the presentation tier of a system, the business and data tier classes typically assume that null checks, range checks, string length checks etc on input have been already done). Common Assert checks include where an invalid assumption would result in a null object dereference, a zero divisor, numerical or date arithmetic overflow, and general out of band / not designed for behaviour (e.g. if a 32 bit int was used to model a human's age, it would be prudent to Assert that the age is actually between 0 and 125 or so - values of -100 and 10^10 were not designed for).

.Net代码契约 在. net堆栈中，代码契约可以作为Debug.Assert的补充，也可以作为Debug.Assert的替代。代码契约可以进一步形式化状态检查，并且可以帮助在编译时(或者稍后，如果在IDE中作为背景检查运行)检测违反假设的情况。

契约式设计(DBC)检查包括:

合同。要求-约定的先决条件 合同。保证-合同后置条件 不变量——表示关于对象在其生命周期中所有点的状态的假设。 合同。当调用非契约装饰方法时，假定-安抚静态检查器。

如果您希望在生产代码中使用断言(即发布构建)，您可以使用Trace。Assert而不是Debug.Assert。

这当然会增加生产可执行文件的开销。

此外，如果您的应用程序在用户界面模式下运行，则默认情况下将显示断言对话框，这可能会让您的用户感到不安。

您可以通过删除DefaultTraceListener来覆盖这种行为:查看Trace的文档。MSDN中的侦听器。

总之,

使用调试。自由断言，以帮助在调试版本中捕获错误。 如果你使用Trace。在用户界面模式下断言，您可能希望删除DefaultTraceListener以避免让用户感到不安。 如果你测试的条件是你的应用程序无法处理的，你可能最好抛出一个异常，以确保执行不会继续。请注意，用户可以选择忽略断言。

摘自《实用程序员:从熟练工到高手》

Leave Assertions Turned On There is a common misunderstanding about assertions, promulgated by the people who write compilers and language environments. It goes something like this: Assertions add some overhead to code. Because they check for things that should never happen, they'll get triggered only by a bug in the code. Once the code has been tested and shipped, they are no longer needed, and should be turned off to make the code run faster. Assertions are a debugging facility. There are two patently wrong assumptions here. First, they assume that testing finds all the bugs. In reality, for any complex program you are unlikely to test even a miniscule percentage of the permutations your code will be put through (see Ruthless Testing). Second, the optimists are forgetting that your program runs in a dangerous world. During testing, rats probably won't gnaw through a communications cable, someone playing a game won't exhaust memory, and log files won't fill the hard drive. These things might happen when your program runs in a production environment. Your first line of defense is checking for any possible error, and your second is using assertions to try to detect those you've missed. Turning off assertions when you deliver a program to production is like crossing a high wire without a net because you once made it across in practice. There's dramatic value, but it's hard to get life insurance. Even if you do have performance issues, turn off only those assertions that really hit you.