Comparison Operators

Expressions that use comparison operators do not return a number value as do arithmetic expressions. Comparison expressions return either a true or false response in terms of 1 or 0 as follows:

1: True
0: False

Comparison operators can compare numbers or strings and ask questions, such as:

Are the terms equal? (A = B)
Is the first term greater than the second? (A > B)
Is the first term less than the second? (A < B)

For example, if A = 4 and B = 3, then the results of the previous comparison questions are:

(A = B) Does 4 = 3? 0 (False)
(A > B) Is 4 > 3? 1 (True)
(A < B) Is 4 < 3? 0 (False)

The more commonly used comparison operators are as follows:

Operator: Meaning
==: Strictly Equal
=: Equal
\ ==: Not strictly equal
\ =: Not equal
>: Greater than
<: Less than
> <: Greater than or less than (same as not equal)
> =: Greater than or equal to
\ <: Not less than
< =: Less than or equal to
\ >: Not greater than

Note: The not character, "¬", is synonymous with the backslash ("\"). The two characters may be used interchangeably according to availability and personal preference. This book uses the backslash ("\") character.