— Inequalities

There three main ways things can happen when two things are compared.

Let’s call the two things A and B.

A could be equal to B.

A could be greater than B.

A could be less than B.

Equal To

A commonly used test is ” == ” or Equal To. In C, there is a difference between ” = ” and ” == ”

The single “equal-sign” is for assigning values to a variable:

apple=3;

means that the variable apple has been assigned the value of 3.

While

apple==3;

is asking if the value of apple is equal to 3 which is either true or false.

Here’s a simple example of the equals:

3==3 is true.

3 is equal to 3.

3==5 is false.

3 is NOT equal to 5.

You can think of the > as a mouth trying to eat the bigger of the two.

There is no better way of showing this than an example.

5 > 3 is true.

5 is greater than 3.

3 > 5 is false.

3 is NOT greater than 5.

If the value on the right is the bigger of the two being compared, then the symbol < is used and is read as less than.

Again, examples are the best way to explain how it works.

3 < 5 is true.

3 is less than 5.

5 < 3 is false.

5 is NOT less than 3.