Skip to content

Compare Operators

==

Equal to. Returns true if operands are equal, false otherwise.

5 == 5        // true
5 == 3        // false
"hello" == "hello"  // true
5 == "5"      // true (numeric string conversion)

!=

Not equal to. Returns true if operands are not equal, false otherwise.

5 != 3        // true
5 != 5        // false
"hello" != "world"  // true
5 != "5"      // false (numeric string conversion)

<=>

Spaceship operator. Returns -1 if left < right, 0 if equal, 1 if left > right.

5 <=> 3       // 1 (5 is greater than 3)
3 <=> 5       // -1 (3 is less than 5)
5 <=> 5       // 0 (equal)
"hello" <=> "world"  // -1 (lexicographic comparison)
"world" <=> "hello"  // 1 (lexicographic comparison)
5 <=> "5"     // 0 (numeric string conversion)
5 <=> "hello" // 1 (numeric vs string comparison)

Note: All comparison operators now use unified logic and return standardized values. String comparisons return -1/0/1 instead of varying string comparison distances.

<=

Less than or equal to.

3 <= 5        // true
5 <= 5        // true
5 <= 3        // false
"abc" <= "def"  // true

>=

Greater than or equal to.

5 >= 3        // true
5 >= 5        // true
3 >= 5        // false
"def" >= "abc"  // true

>

Greater than.

5 > 3         // true
5 > 5         // false
3 > 5         // false
"def" > "abc" // true

<

Less than.

3 < 5         // true
5 < 5         // false
5 < 3         // false
"abc" < "def" // true

&&

Logical AND. Two conditions must be true.

((1==1) && (2==2)) -> true
((1==1) && (2==3)) -> false
((1==2) && (2==3)) -> false

||

Logical OR. If either of two conditions are true.

((1==1) || (2==2)) -> true
((1==1) || (2==3)) -> true
((1==2) || (2==3)) -> false

Modifier Operators

-

Negate.

-(4+2) -> -6

!

Not.

!true -> false
!false -> true

~

Bitwise not.

(~0x6C).hex() -> FFFFFF93

Type Handling

All comparison operators now support mixed type comparisons with intelligent type conversion:

  • Numeric strings: Automatically converted to numbers for comparison
  • Non-numeric strings: Fall back to string comparison
  • Float vs String: Uses adaptive tolerance for numeric strings
  • Bool comparisons: Handled with proper truthiness logic
  • Null comparisons: Properly handled for equality and ordering

Examples: 

5 == "5"      // true (numeric conversion)
5.5 == "5.5"  // true (float conversion with tolerance)
5 > "hello"   // true (numeric vs string)
"hello" > 5   // true (string vs numeric)

See also