Programming Fundamentals/Relational Operators

Overview

A relational operator is a programming language construct or operator that tests or defines some kind of relation between two entities. These include numerical equality (e.g., 5 = 5) and inequalities (e.g., 4 ≥ 3).

Discussion

Relational operators give a Boolean value (data type that has one of two possible values to represent the two truths of logic) by evaluating the relationship between two operands.

Operator symbols and/or names can vary with different programming languages. Most programming languages use relational operators similar to the following:

Operator	Meaning
<	less than
>	greater than
<=	less than or equal to
>=	greater than or equal to
==	equality (equal to)
!= or <>	inequality (not equal to)

Examples:

• 9 < 25
• 9 < 3
• 9 > 14
• 9 <= 17
• 9 >= 25
• 9 == 13
• 9 != 13
• 9 !< 25
• 9 <> 25

Note: Be careful. In math you are familiar with using the symbol = to mean equal and ≠ to mean not equal, but in many programming languages the ≠ is not used and the = symbol means assignment.

Key Terms

relational operator

An operator that gives a Boolean value by evaluating the relationship between two operands.

References

• cnx.org: Programming Fundamentals – A Modular Structured Approach using C++

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