Perl String Equality Operators Example

Below is a list of equity operators. Assume variable $a holds "abc" and variable $b holds "xyz" then, lets check the following string equality operators −

Sr.No.	Operator & Description
1	lt Returns true if the left argument is stringwise less than the right argument. Example − ($a lt $b) is true.
2	gt Returns true if the left argument is stringwise greater than the right argument. Example − ($a gt $b) is false.
3	le Returns true if the left argument is stringwise less than or equal to the right argument. Example − ($a le $b) is true.
4	ge Returns true if the left argument is stringwise greater than or equal to the right argument. Example − ($a ge $b) is false.
5	eq Returns true if the left argument is stringwise equal to the right argument. Example − ($a eq $b) is false.
6	ne Returns true if the left argument is stringwise not equal to the right argument. Example − ($a ne $b) is true.
7	cmp Returns -1, 0, or 1 depending on whether the left argument is stringwise less than, equal to, or greater than the right argument. Example − ($a cmp $b) is -1.

Example

Try the following example to understand all the string equality operators available in Perl. Copy and paste the following Perl program in test.pl file and execute this program.

Live Demo

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
 
$a = "abc";
$b = "xyz";

print "Value of \$a = $a and value of \$b = $b\n";

if( $a lt $b ) {
   print "$a lt \$b is true\n";
} else {
   print "\$a lt \$b is not true\n";
}

if( $a gt $b ) {
   print "\$a gt \$b is true\n";
} else {
   print "\$a gt \$b is not true\n";
}

if( $a le $b ) {
   print "\$a le \$b is true\n";
} else {
   print "\$a le \$b is not true\n";
}

if( $a ge $b ) {
   print "\$a ge \$b is true\n";
} else {
   print "\$a ge \$b is not true\n";
}

if( $a ne $b ) {
   print "\$a ne \$b is true\n";
} else {
   print "\$a ne \$b is not true\n";
}

$c = $a cmp $b;
print "\$a cmp \$b returns $c\n";

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Value of $a = abc and value of $b = xyz
abc lt $b is true
$a gt $b is not true
$a le $b is true
$a ge $b is not true
$a ne $b is true
$a cmp $b returns -1

perl_operators.htm