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Comparison operators are used to compare two values.
Comparison operators always return true or false.Formula
Given that x = 5, the table below explains the comparison operators:== equal to x == 8 false Try it » x == 5 true Try it » x == "5" true Try it » === equal value and equal type x === 5 true Try it » x === "5" false Try it » != not equal x != 8 true Try it » !== not equal value or not equal type x !== 5 false Try it » x !== "5" true Try it » x !== 8 true Try it » >
Formula
greater than x > 8 falseTry it » <
Formula
less than x < 8 trueTry it » >= greater than or equal to x >= 8 false Try it » <= less than or equal to x <= 8 true Try it » Comparison operators can be used in conditional statements to compare values and take action depending on the result:
if (age < 18) text = "Too young to buy alcohol";
You will learn more about the use of conditional statements in the if...else chapter of this tutorial.All the comparison operators above can also be used on strings:
let text1 = "A";
let text2 = "B";
let result = text1 < text2;Note that strings are compared alphabetically:
let text1 = "20";
let text2 = "5";
let result = text1 < text2;Comparing data of different types may give unexpected results. When comparing a string with a number, JavaScript will convert the string to a number when doing the comparison. An empty string converts to 0. A non-numeric string converts to
which is always false.
Formula
2 < 12 trueTry it » 2 < "12" true Try it » 2 < "John" false Try it » 2 > "John" false Try it » 2 == "John" false Try it » "2" < "12" false Try it » "2" > "12" true Try it » "2" == "12" false Try it » When comparing two strings, "2" will be greater than "12". Alphabetically 1 is less than 21. To secure a proper result, variables should be converted to the proper type before comparison:
Example age = Number(age);
if (isNaN(age)) {
voteable = "Input is not a number";
} else {
voteable = (age < 18) ? "Too young" : "Old enough";
}