PHP - Comparison Operators Examples

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

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

Basic Usage of Comparison Operators

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"; } ?> 

Output

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 

PHP Equality (==) vs Identity (===) Operators

In the below PHP code we will try to compare two variables. One variable is a number and the other variable is text. So it checks if both have the same value (==). Next it checks if both value and type are the same (===).

 <?php $x = 15; $y = "15"; if ($x == $y) { echo "x is equal to y \n"; } if ($x === $y) { echo "x is identical to y \n"; } else { echo "x is not identical to y \n"; } ?> 

Output

This will generate the below output −

 x is equal to y x is not identical to y 

PHP Spaceship Operator

Now the below code is showing the usage of spaceship operator. The spaceship operator returns three possible values - it returns -1 if the first value is smaller, returns 0 if both values are equal and returns 1 if the second value is larger.

 <?php $a = 5; $b = 10; echo ($a <=> $b), "\n"; $a = 20; echo ($a <=> $b), "\n"; $a = 10; echo ($a <=> $b), "\n"; ?> 

Output

This will create the below output −

 -1 1 0 

Usage of Not Equal (!=) and Not Identical (!==)

In the following example, we are showing the usage of != and !== operators. The != operator checks if both the variables are different and !== checks that both the variables are exactly the same.

 <?php $p = 50; $q = "50"; if ($p != $q) { echo "p is not equal to q \n"; } else { echo "p is equal to q \n"; } if ($p !== $q) { echo "p is not identical to q \n"; } else { echo "p is identical to q \n"; } ?> 

Output

Following is the output of the above code −

 p is equal to q p is not identical to q 

PHP Comparison and Logical Operators

In PHP, comparison operators compare two values and logical operators combine multiple conditions. The PHP programbelow shows how to use comparison (>, <) and logical operators (&&, ||) to decide loan eligibility and special discounts.

 <?php $age = 25; $salary = 5000; if ($age > 18 && $salary > 3000) { echo "Eligible for Loan \n"; } else { echo "Not Eligible for Loan \n"; } if ($age < 30 || $salary < 1000) { echo "Special discount applicable \n"; } ?> 

Output

Following is the output of the above code −

 Eligible for Loan Special discount applicable