Introduction
Unlike other programming languages which define 6 comparison operators, B4P supports 8 comparison operators which can be combined with comparison options to make adjustments on the comparison rules:
- < Less than
- <= Less than or equal to
- > Greater than
- >= Greater than or equal to
- = Equal to, expecting 1 or more operands separated by comma (comparing with a selection of multiple values separated with commas) and/or ranges.
- <> Not equal to, expecting 1 or more operands separated by comma (comparing with a selection of multiple values separated with commas) and/or ranges.
- == strictly Equal to, expecting 1 operand only
- != strictly not equal to, expecting 1 operand only
Comparisons with b>= and >< are more tolerant in comparing numbers and strings containing numbers, and also support wildcard symbols on the right-hand operands if they are defined as softquoted strings (e.g. text inside single quotation marks).
Attention! = and <> may Hijack Parameters
Attention: As the two comparison operators = and >< expect 1 or more operands on the right hand side, you may risk situations where the comparison hijacks the remaining comma-separated values on the right-hand-side typically encountered in function parameters and values in parameter sets. To avoid this, put the comparison into parentheses, or use the == and != symbols.
Examples 02
b[] = 12;
// Want to compare b[] == 9 and include the result in the parameter set between 'false' and 12
// Good luck!
a[0] = { 3, 6, false, b[] = 9 , 12, 15 }; // Comparison has hijacked the last two parameters
a[1] = { 3, 6, false,(b[] = 9), 12, 15 }; // OK
a[2] = { 3, 6, false, b[] == 9 , 12, 15 }; // OK
for all variables( a[], b[] ) echo( b[] );Output 02
{3,6,false,true}
{3,6,false,false,12,15}
{3,6,false,false,12,15}