Revamp the PermissiveAssertClass to actually work. The original implementation was broken as it would have passed assertions due to incorrect branching. Furthermore, make the comparer use the VarCmp function. To handle edge cases where conversions are involved, variant must be changed to same type before comparing.

Author: bclothier

Rubberduck.Main/ComClientLibrary/UnitTesting/PermissiveAssertClass.cs

@@ -31,15 +31,14 @@ public class PermissiveAssertClass : AssertClass
         /// </remarks>
         public override void AreEqual(object expected, object actual, string message = "")
         {
-            // vbNullString is marshalled as null. assume value semantics:
-            expected = expected ?? string.Empty;
-            actual = actual ?? string.Empty;
-
-            if (!PermissiveComparer.Equals(expected, actual))
+            if (PermissiveComparer.Equals(expected, actual))
+            {
+                AssertHandler.OnAssertSucceeded();
+            }
+            else
             {
                 AssertHandler.OnAssertFailed(message);
             }
-            AssertHandler.OnAssertSucceeded();
         }
 
         public override void AreNotEqual(object expected, object actual, string message = "")

Rubberduck.UnitTesting/ComClientHelpers/PermissiveObjectComparer.cs

@@ -14,19 +14,7 @@ public class PermissiveObjectComparer : IEqualityComparer<object>
         /// <returns>VBA equity</returns>
         public new bool Equals(object x, object y)
         {
-            if (x == null)
-            {
-                return y == null;
-            }
-
-            if (y == null)
-            {
-                return false;
-            }
-            
-            var converted = VariantConverter.ChangeType(y, x.GetType());
-
-            return x.Equals(converted);
+            return VariantComparer.Compare(x, y) == VariantComparisonResults.VARCMP_EQ;
         }
 
         /// <summary>