PHP Comparison Operators
Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use PHP comparison operators to compare two values.
Introduction to PHP comparison operators
A comparison operator allows you to compare two values and returns true if the comparison is truthful and false otherwise.
The following table illustrates the comparison operators in PHP:
| Operator | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| == | Equal to | Return true if both operands are equal; otherwise, it returns false. |
| !=, <> | Not equal to | Return true if both operands are equal; otherwise, it returns false. |
| === | Identical to | Return true if both operands have the same data type and equal; otherwise, it returns false. |
| !== | Not identical to | Return true if both operands are not equal or not have the same data type; otherwise, it returns false. |
| > | Greater than | Return true if the operand on the left is greater than the operand on the right; otherwise, it returns false. |
| >= | Greater than or equal to | Return true if the operand on the left is greater than or equal to the operand on the right; otherwise, it returns false. |
| < | Less than | Return true if the operand on the left is less than the operand on the right; otherwise, it returns false. |
| <= | Less than or equal to | Return true if the operand on the left is less than or equal to the operand on the right; otherwise, it returns false. |
Equality Operator (==)
The equality returns true if both values are equal; otherwise, it returns false. The following example returns true because 10 is equal 10:
$x = 10;
$y = 10;
var_dump($x == $y); // bool(true)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
The following example returns false because 10 is not equal 20:
$x = 20;
$y = 10;
var_dump($x == $y); // bool(false)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
The following example compares the number 20 with a string '20', it also returns true.
$x = '20';
$y = 20;
var_dump($x == $y); // bool(true)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
If you want to compare two values with the consideration of type, you can use the identical operator (===).
Not equal to operator (!=, <>)
The not equal to (!=, <>) operator returns true if the lefthand value is not equal to the righthand value; otherwise, it returns false. For example:
$x = 20;
$y = 10;
var_dump($x != $y); // bool(true)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Identical operator (===)
The identical operator returns true if both values are equal and have the same type; otherwise returns false.
The following example uses the identical operator to compare a string and a number. It returns false because these values have different types:
$x = '20';
$y = 20;
var_dump($x === $y); // bool(false)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Not identical operator (!==)
The not identical operator (!==) returns true if the values are not equal or they do not have the same type; otherwise, it return false. For example:
$x = 20;
$y = 10;
var_dump($x != $y); // bool(true)
$x = 20;
$y = '20';
var_dump($x != $y); // bool(false)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Greater than (>)
The greater than return true if the lefthand value is greater than the righthand value; otherwise, it returns false:
$x = 10;
$y = 20;
var_dump($x > $y); // bool(false)
var_dump($y > $x); // bool(true)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Greater than or equal to (>=)
The greater than or equal to operator returns true if the lefthand value is greater than or equal to the righthand value; otherwise, it returns false. For example:
$x = 20;
$y = 20;
var_dump($x >= $y); // bool(true)
var_dump($y >= $x); // bool(true)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Less than (<)
The less than operator returns true if the lefthand value is less than the righthand value; otherwise, it returns false. For example:
$x = 20;
$y = 10;
var_dump($x < $y); // bool(false)
var_dump($y < $x); // bool(true)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Less than or equal to (<=)
If the lefthand value is less than or equal to the righthand value, the less than or equal to operator returns true; otherwise, it returns false. For example:
$x = 20;
$y = 20;
var_dump($x <= $y); // bool(true)
var_dump($y <= $x); // bool(true)
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the PHP comparison operators to compare two values of the same or different types.