A relational operator is a binary operator that compares two values. The following symbols are used in Java as relational operators:
<
less than
>
greater than
<=
less than or equal to
>=
greater than or equal to
==
equal to
!=
not equal to
A relational operator is used to compare two values, resulting in a relational expression. For example:
number > 16
grade == 'F'
passing >= 60
The result of a relational expression is a boolean value of either true or false.
When character data is compared, the ASCII code values are used to determine the answer. The following expressions result in the answers given:
'A' < 'B'
evaluates as true, (65 < 66)
'd' < 'a'
evaluates as false, (100 < 97)
't' < 'X'
evaluates as false, (116 < 88)
In the last example, you must remember that upper case letters come first in the ASCII collating sequence; the lower case letters follow after and consequently have larger ASCII values than do upper case ('A' = 65, 'a' = 97).
