I love me some TestNG, yes I do, but recently it went completely haywire on a test…
java.lang.AssertionError:
Expected :null
Actual :null
at org.testng.Assert.fail(Assert.java:89)
at org.testng.Assert.failNotSame(Assert.java:485)
at org.testng.Assert.assertNull(Assert.java:421)
at org.testng.Assert.assertNull(Assert.java:410)
at com.comapny.tests.SimpleTest.testExpectedNull(SimpleTest.java:31)
Expected null, actual null? Well those look the same, how can they not be? Simple. I was doing a conversion with String.valueOf.
defaultValue = String.valueOf(defaultValue);
The valueOf(null) is the literal string “null”, something that looks the same in any printed representation. Checking for an actual null, instead of converting it, solved the problem. Like so:
defaultValue = (null==defaultValue) ? null : String.valueOf(defaultValue);
