PHP: Comparison Operators

Last update on August 19 2022 21:51:14 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Description

In PHP, comparison operators take simple values (numbers or strings) as arguments and evaluate to either TRUE or FALSE.

Here is a list of comparison operators.

Operator	Name	Example	Result
= =	Equal	$x == $y	TRUE if $x is exactly equal to $y
= = =	Identical	$x === $y	TRUE if $x is exactly equal to $y, and they are of the same type.
!=	Not equal	$x != $y	TRUE if $x is exactly not equal to $y.
<>	Not equal	$x <> $y	TRUE if $x is exactly not equal to $y.
!==	Not identical	$x !== $y	TRUE if $x is not equal to $y, or they are not of the same type.
<	Less than	$x < $y	TRUE if $x (left-hand argument) is strictly less than $y (right-hand argument).
>	Greater than	$x > $y	TRUE if $x (left hand argument) is strictly greater than $y (right hand argument).
<=	Less than or equal to	$x <= $y	TRUE if $x (left hand argument) is less than or equal to $y (right hand argument).
>=	Greater than or equal to	$x >= $y	TRUE if $x is greater than or equal to $y.

Pictorial presentation of Equal (==) operator

Test Equal (==) operator

The following php codes return true though the type of $x and $y are not equal (the first one is integer type and the second one is character type) but their values are equal.

<?php
$x = 300;
$y = "300";
var_dump($x == $y);
?>

Output :

 bool(true)

View the example in the browser

Pictorial presentation of Strict equal (===) operator

Test Strict equal (===) operator

The following php codes returns false as the strict equal operator will compare both value and type of $x and $y.

<?php
$x = 300;
$y = "300";
var_dump($x === $y);
?>

Output :

bool(false)

View the example in the browser

Pictorial presentation of Not equal(!=)/(<>) operator

Test Not equal (!=) / (<>) operator

The following php codes return false though the type of $x and $y are not equal (the first one is integer type and the second one is character type) but their values are equal.

<?php
$x = 150;
$y = "150";
var_dump($x != $y);
?>

Output of the example

bool(false)

View the example in the browser

Test Not identical (!==) operator

The following php codes return true though their values are equal but the type of $x and $y are not equal (the first one is integer type and the second one is character type).

<?php
$x = 150;
$y = "150";
var_dump($x !== $y);
?>

Output :

bool(true)

View the example in the browser

Pictorial presentation of Greater than(>) operator

Test Greater than(>) operator

The following php code return true as the value of $x is greater than $y.

<?php
$x = 300;
$y = 100;
var_dump($x>$y);
?>

Output :

bool(true)

View the example in the browser

Pictorial presentation of Greater than or equal (>=)

Test Greater than or equal (>=) operator

The following php codes return true as the value of $x is equal to $y.

<?php
$x = 300;
$y = 100;
var_dump($x>=$y);
?>

Output :

bool(true)

View the example in the browser

Pictorial presentation of Less than (<) operator

Test Less than (<) operator

The following php codes return true as the value of $x is less than $y.

<?php
$x = 100;
$y = 300;
var_dump($x<$y);
?>

Output :

bool(true)

View the example in the browser

Pictorial presentation of Less than or equal (<=) operator

Test Less than or equal (<=) operator

The following PHP codes return false as the value of $x is greater than $y.

<?php
$x = 300;
$y = 100;
var_dump($x<=$y);
?>

Output :

bool(false)

View the example in the browser

See also

PHP variables

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