Comparison operators in Ruby

Introduction

Comparison operators help you check if things are equal, bigger, or smaller. They let your program make decisions.

Checking if a user entered the right password

Comparing two numbers to find which is bigger

Seeing if a score reached a passing grade

Deciding if a date is before or after today

Syntax

Ruby

a == b  # equals
 a != b  # not equals
 a > b   # greater than
 a < b   # less than
 a >= b  # greater than or equal to
 a <= b  # less than or equal to

Use double equals (==) to check if two things are the same.

Use != to check if two things are different.

Examples

Checks if numbers are equal.

Ruby

5 == 5  # true
5 == 3  # false

Checks if strings are not equal.

Ruby

"cat" != "dog"  # true
"cat" != "cat"  # false

Checks if one number is bigger or smaller than another.

Ruby

10 > 7   # true
3 < 1    # false

Checks if one number is bigger or equal, or smaller or equal.

Ruby

4 >= 4  # true
2 <= 1  # false

Sample Program

This program prints true or false for different comparisons.

Ruby

puts 10 == 10
puts 5 != 3
puts 7 > 9
puts 4 <= 4

Important Notes

Remember, == checks value equality, not object identity.

Comparison operators return true or false.

You can use them in if statements to control your program.

Summary

Comparison operators compare two values.

They return true or false.

Use them to make decisions in your code.