Comparison Operators

Used to compare expressions.

Syntax

result = expression1 comparison_operator expression2

Arguments:

• Result: Any Boolean value.

• Expression: Any expression.

• Comparison_Operator: Any comparison operator.

Remarks

The Is operator has specific comparison functionality that differs from the operators in the following table. The following table contains a list of the comparison operators and the conditions that determine whether result is True, False, or Null:

Table 11-26 The list of the comparison operators

Operator	Description	True if	False if	Null if
<	Less than	exp1 < exp2	exp1 >= exp2	exp1 or exp2 = Null
<=	Less than or equal to	exp1 <= exp2	exp1 > exp2	exp1 or exp2 = Null
>	Greater than	exp1 > exp2	exp1 <= exp2	exp1 or exp2 = Null
>=	Greater than or equal to	exp1 >= exp2	exp1 < exp2	exp1 or exp2 = Null
=	Equal to	exp1 = exp2	exp1 <> exp2	exp1 or exp2 = Null
<>	Not equal to	exp1 <> exp2	exp1 = exp2	exp1 or exp2 = Null

When comparing two expressions, you may not be able to easily determine whether the expressions are being compared as numbers or as strings.

The following table shows how expressions are compared or what results from the comparison, depending on the underlying subtype:

Table 11-27 Results of Comparison with Expressions

If	Then
Both expressions are numeric	Perform a numeric comparison.
Both expressions are strings	Perform a string comparison.
One expression is Empty and the other is numeric	Perform a numeric comparison, using 0 as the Empty expression.
One expression is Empty and the other is a string	Perform a string comparison, using a zero-length string ("") as the Empty expression.
Both expressions are Empty	The expressions are equal.

The following examples illustrates the use of comparison operator.

Example 1:

Dim num1, num2, result
num1 = 10
num2 = 20
result = num1 < num2
'result -> true

Example 2:

Dim num3, num4, result1
num3 = 10
num4 = 10
result1 = num3 <= num4
'result1 -> true

Example 3:

Dim num5, num6, result2
num5 = 30
num6 = 20
result2 = num5 > num6
'result2 -> true

Example 4:

Dim num7, num8, result3
num7 = 30
num8 = 30
result3 = num7 >= num8
'result3 -> true

Example 5:

Dim str1, str2, result4
str1 = "Hello"
str2 = "Hello"
result4 = str1 = str2
'result4 -> true

Example 6:

Dim str3, str4, result5
str3 = "Hello"
str4 = "World"
result5 = str3 <> str4
'result5 -> true

Example 7:

Dim str5, str6, result6
str5 = "Apple"
str6 = "Banana"
result6 = str5 < str6
'result6 -> true

Example 8:

Dim emptyExpr1, str8, result9
emptyExpr1 = ""
str8 = "Banana"
result9 = emptyExpr1 < str8
'result9 -> true

Example 9:

Dim emptyExpr2, emptyExpr3, result10
emptyExpr2 = ""
emptyExpr3 = ""
result10 = emptyExpr2 = emptyExpr3
'result10 -> true