diff --git a/test/strings/basic.jl b/test/strings/basic.jl
index 1defde0c4ee50..a7d421ab313e5 100644
--- a/test/strings/basic.jl
+++ b/test/strings/basic.jl
@@ -1419,7 +1419,7 @@ end
     str_2 = "Wordu\000"
     # "Regular" string with UTF-8 characters of differing byte counts
     str_3 = "aܣ𒀀"
-    @test Base.cwstring(str_0) = UInt16[0x0000]
+    @test Base.cwstring(str_0) == UInt16[0x0000]
     @test_throws ArgumentError Base.cwstring(str_1)
     @test Base.cwstring(str_2) == UInt16[0x0057, 0x006f, 0x0072, 0x0064, 0x0000]
     @test Base.cwstring(str_3) == UInt16[0x0061, 0x0723, 0xd808, 0xdc00, 0x0000]