Java Relational Operators

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Index

1. Java Relational Operators
2. Relational Operators with Numbers
3. Relational Operators with Characters
4. Relational Operators with Strings

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Java Relational Operators

Relational operators are used to check the relationship between two operands and return a boole value

// check if a is less than b
a < b;

Here, < operator is the relational operator. It checks if a is less than b or not. It returns either true or false.

Operator	Description	Example
==	Is Equal To	3 == 5 returns false
!=	Not Equal To	3 != 5 returns true
>	Greater Than	3 > 5 returns false
<	Less Than	3 < 5 returns true
>=	Greater Than or Equal To	3 >= 5 returns false
<=	Less Than or Equal To	3 <= 5 returns true

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Relational Operators with Numbers

Relational operators can be used to compare numeric values:

int a = 10, b = 5;
 
System.out.println(a == b); // false
System.out.println(a != b); // true
System.out.println(a > b); // true
System.out.println(a < b); // false
System.out.println(a >= b); // true
System.out.println(a <= b); // false

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Relational Operators with Characters

Relational operators can also be used to compare characters. Characters are internally represented as Unicode code points, so the comparison is based on their numeric values:

char a = 'a', b = 'B';
 
System.out.println(a == b); // false
System.out.println(a != b); // true
System.out.println(a > b); // false
System.out.println(a < b); // true
System.out.println(a >= b); // false
System.out.println(a <= b); // true

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Relational Operators with Strings

Relational operators cannot be directly applied to strings as they are with numeric types. Instead, the compareTo() or equals() methods should be used to compare strings.

The compareTo()method returns an integer value that indicates the relationship between the two strings:

• If a.compareTo(b) > 0, then a is greater than b.
• If a.compareTo(b) < 0, then a is less than b.
• If a.compareTo(b) == 0, then a is equal to b.

The equals()method returns a boolean value that indicates the relationship between the two strings:

• If a.equals(b) == True, then a is equal to b.
• If a.equals(b) == False, then a is not equal to b.

Read Java Strings to learn more.

Example:

String a = "Hello";
String b = "World";
 
int result = a.compareTo(b);
 
if (result > 0) {
  System.out.println("a is greater than b");
} else if (result < 0) {
  System.out.println("a is less than b");
} else {
  System.out.println("a is equal to b");
}

Output:

a is less than b

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