Operators - Beginning Java 8 Fundamentals - page 119

Relational Operators
All relational operators are binary operators. That is, they take two operands. The result produced by a relational
operator is always a Boolean value true or false. Table 4-3 lists the relational operators available in Java.

Table 4-3. List of Relational Operators in Java

Operators Meaning Type Usage Result

== 3 == 2 false Equal to Binary

!= 3 != 2 true Not equal to Binary

> 3 > 2 true Greater than Binary

>= 3 >= 2 true Greater than or equal to Binary

< 3 < 2 false

Less than Binary

<= 3 <= 2 false Less than or equal to Binary

Equality Operator (==)
The equality operator ( == ) is used in the form

operand1 == operand2

The equality operator is used to test two operands for equality. It uses the following rules:

• Both operands must be either primitive type or reference type. Mixed operands types are not

allowed. Mixing the operands types results in a compile-time error.

true if the both operands represent the same value;
otherwise, it returns false . If both operands must be either numeric or boolean . A mix of
numeric and boolean types is not allowed.

• For primitive operands, it returns

true if the both operands refer to the same object in
memory; otherwise it returns false .
Suppose there is an int variable i .

• For reference operands, it returns

int i = 10;

Now, i == 10 will test whether i is equal to 10 or not. Because i is equal to 10 , the expression i == 10 will
evaluate to true .
Let's consider another example.

int i;
int j;
int k;
boolean b;

i = j = k = 15; // Assign 15 to i, j, and k
b = (i == j == k); // A compile-time error