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Comparison Operators
Comparison operators, as their name implies, allow you to compare two values. You may also be interested in viewing the type comparison tables, as they show examples of various type related comparisons.
Table 6.4. Comparison Operators
| Example | Name | Result |
|---|---|---|
| $a == $b | Equal | TRUE if $a is equal to $b. |
| $a === $b | Identical |
TRUE if $a is equal to $b, and they are of the same
type. (introduced in PHP 4)
|
| $a != $b | Not equal | TRUE if $a is not equal to $b. |
| $a <> $b | Not equal | TRUE if $a is not equal to $b. |
| $a !== $b | Not identical |
TRUE if $a is not equal to $b, or they are not of the same
type. (introduced in PHP 4)
|
| $a < $b | Less than | TRUE if $a is strictly less than $b. |
| $a > $b | Greater than | TRUE if $a is strictly greater than $b. |
| $a <= $b | Less than or equal to | TRUE if $a is less than or equal to $b. |
| $a >= $b | Greater than or equal to | TRUE if $a is greater than or equal to $b. |
If you compare an integer with a string, the string is converted to a number. If you compare two numerical strings, they are compared as integers. These rules also apply to the switch statement.
<?php
var_dump(0 == "a"); // 0 == 0 -> true
var_dump("1" == "01"); // 1 == 1 -> true
var_dump("1" == "1e0"); // 1 == 1 -> true
switch ("a") {
case 0:
echo "0";
break;
case "a": // never reached because "a" is already matched with 0
echo "a";
break;
}
?>For various types, comparison is done according to the following table (in order).
Table 6.5. Comparison with Various Types
| Type of Operand 1 | Type of Operand 2 | Result |
|---|---|---|
| null or string | string | Convert NULL to "", numerical or lexical comparison |
| bool or null | anything | Convert to bool, FALSE < TRUE |
| object | object | Built-in classes can define its own comparison, different classes are uncomparable, same class - compare properties the same way as arrays (PHP 4), PHP 5 has its own explanation |
| string, resource or number | string, resource or number | Translate strings and resources to numbers, usual math |
| array | array | Array with fewer members is smaller, if key from operand 1 is not found in operand 2 then arrays are uncomparable, otherwise - compare value by value (see following example) |
| array | anything | array is always greater |
| object | anything | object is always greater |
Example 6.2. Transcription of standard array comparison
<?php
// Arrays are compared like this with standard comparison operators
function standard_array_compare($op1, $op2)
{
if (count($op1) < count($op2)) {
return -1; // $op1 < $op2
} elseif (count($op1) > count($op2)) {
return 1; // $op1 > $op2
}
foreach ($op1 as $key => $val) {
if (!array_key_exists($key, $op2)) {
return null; // uncomparable
} elseif ($val < $op2[$key]) {
return -1;
} elseif ($val > $op2[$key]) {
return 1;
}
}
return 0; // $op1 == $op2
}
?>
See also strcasecmp(), strcmp(), Array operators, and the manual section on Types.
Another conditional operator is the "?:" (or ternary) operator.
Example 6.3. Assigning a default value
<?php
// Example usage for: Ternary Operator
$action = (empty($_POST['action'])) ? 'default' : $_POST['action'];
// The above is identical to this if/else statement
if (empty($_POST['action'])) {
$action = 'default';
} else {
$action = $_POST['action'];
}
?>
The expression (expr1) ? (expr2) : (expr3)
evaluates to expr2 if
expr1 evaluates to TRUE, and
expr3 if
expr1 evaluates to FALSE.
Please note that the ternary operator is a statement, and that it
doesn't evaluate to a variable, but to the result of a statement. This
is important to know if you want to return a variable by reference.
The statement return $var == 42 ? $a : $b; in a
return-by-reference function will therefore not work and a warning is
issued in later PHP versions.
Is is recommended that you avoid "stacking" ternary expressions. PHP's behaviour when using more than one ternary operator within a single statement is non-obvious:
Example 6.4. Non-obvious Ternary Behaviour
<?php
// on first glance, the following appears to output 'true'
echo (true?'true':false?'t':'f');
// however, the actual output of the above is 't'
// this is because ternary expressions are evaluated from left to right
// the following is a more obvious version of the same code as above
echo ((true ? 'true' : 'false') ? 't' : 'f');
// here, you can see that the first expression is evaluated to 'true', which
// in turn evaluates to (bool)true, thus returning the true branch of the
// second ternary expression.
?>