PHP - Comparison Operators Examples

In PHP, Comparison operators are used to compare two values and determine their relationship. These operators return a Boolean value, either True or False, based on the result of the comparison.

The following table highligts the comparison operators that are supported by PHP. Assume variable $a holds 10 and variable $b holds 20, then −

Operator	Description	Example
==	Checks if the value of two operands are equal or not, if yes then condition becomes true.	($a == $b) is not true
!=	Checks if the value of two operands are equal or not, if values are not equal then condition becomes true.	($a != $b) is true
>	Checks if the value of left operand is greater than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true.	($a > $b) is false
<	Checks if the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true.	($a < $b) is true
>=	Checks if the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true.	($a >= $b) is false
<=	Checks if the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true.	($a <= $b) is true

Additionally, these operators can also be combined with logical operators (&&, ||, !) to form complex conditions for decision making in PHP programs.

Example

The following example shows how you can use these comparison operators in PHP −

<?php
   $a = 42;
   $b = 20;

   if ($a == $b) {
      echo "TEST1 : a is equal to b \n";
   } else {
      echo "TEST1 : a is not equal to b \n";
   }

   if ($a > $b) {
      echo "TEST2 : a is greater than  b \n";
   } else {
      echo "TEST2 : a is not greater than b \n";
   }

   if ($a < $b) {
      echo "TEST3 : a is less than  b \n";
   } else {
      echo "TEST3 : a is not less than b \n";
   }

   if ($a != $b) {
      echo "TEST4 : a is not equal to b \n";
   } else {
      echo "TEST4 : a is equal to b \n";
   }

   if ($a >= $b) {
      echo "TEST5 : a is either greater than or equal to b \n";
   } else {
      echo "TEST5 : a is neither greater than nor equal to b \n";
   }    
   if ($a <= $b) {
      echo "TEST6 : a is either less than or equal to b \n";
   } else {
      echo "TEST6 : a is neither less than nor equal to b";
   }
?>

It will produce the following output −

TEST1 : a is not equal to b
TEST2 : a is greater than b
TEST3 : a is not less than b
TEST4 : a is not equal to b
TEST5 : a is either greater than or equal to b
TEST6 : a is neither less than nor equal to b

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