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Relational and Conditional Operators

A relational operator compares two values and determines the relationship between them. For example, != returns true if the two operands are unequal. This table summarizes the relational operators:

Operator	Use	Returns true if
>	op1 > op2	op1 is greater than op2
>=	op1 >= op2	op1 is greater than or equal to op2
<	op1 < op2	op1 is less than op2
<=	op1 <= op2	op1 is less than or equal to op2
==	op1 == op2	op1 and op2 are equal
!=	op1 != op2	op1 and op2 are not equal

Following is an example, RelationalDemo, that defines three integer numbers and uses the relational operators to compare them. The relational operations are shown in red:

public class RelationalDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        //a few numbers
        int i = 37;
        int j = 42;
        int k = 42;
        System.out.println("Variable values...");
        System.out.println("    i = " + i);
        System.out.println("    j = " + j);
        System.out.println("    k = " + k);

	//greater than
        System.out.println("Greater than...");
        System.out.println("    i > j = " + (i > j));	  //false
        System.out.println("    j > i = " + (j > i));     //true
        System.out.println("    k > j = " + (k > j));     //false, they are equal

	//greater than or equal to
        System.out.println("Greater than or equal to...");
        System.out.println("    i >= j = " + (i >= j));   //false
        System.out.println("    j >= i = " + (j >= i));   //true
        System.out.println("    k >= j = " + (k >= j));   //true

	//less than
        System.out.println("Less than...");
        System.out.println("    i < j = " + (i < j));     //true
        System.out.println("    j < i = " + (j < i));     //false
        System.out.println("    k < j = " + (k < j));     //false

	//less than or equal to
        System.out.println("Less than or equal to...");
        System.out.println("    i <= j = " + (i <= j));   //true
        System.out.println("    j <= i = " + (j <= i));   //false
        System.out.println("    k <= j = " + (k <= j));   //true

	//equal to
        System.out.println("Equal to...");
        System.out.println("    i == j = " + (i == j));   //false
        System.out.println("    k == j = " + (k == j));   //true

	//not equal to
        System.out.println("Not equal to...");
        System.out.println("    i != j = " + (i != j));   //true
        System.out.println("    k != j = " + (k != j));   //false

    }
}

Here's the output from this program:

Variable values...
    i = 37
    j = 42
    k = 42
Greater than...
    i > j = false
    j > i = true
    k > j = false
Greater than or equal to...
    i >= j = false
    j >= i = true
    k >= j = true
Less than...
    i < j = true
    j < i = false
    k < j = false
Less than or equal to...
    i <= j = true
    j <= i = false
    k <= j = true
Equal to...
    i == j = false
    k == j = true
Not equal to...
    i != j = true
    k != j = false

Relational operators often are used with conditional operators to construct more complex decision-making expressions. The Java programming language supports six conditional operators-five binary and one unary--as shown in the following table.

Operator	Use	Returns true if
&&	op1 && op2	op1 and op2 are both true, conditionally evaluates op2
||	op1 || op2	either op1 or op2 is true, conditionally evaluates op2
!	! op	op is false
&	op1 & op2	op1 and op2 are both true, always evaluates op1 and op2
|	op1 | op2	either op1 or op2 is true, always evaluates op1 and op2
^	op1 ^ op2	if op1 and op2 are different--that is if one or the other of the operands is true but not both

One such operator is &&, which performs the conditional AND operation. You can use two different relational operators along with && to determine whether both relationships are true. The following line of code uses this technique to determine whether an array index is between two boundaries. It determines whether the index is both greater than or equal to 0 and less than NUM_ENTRIES, which is a previously defined constant value.

0 <= index && index < NUM_ENTRIES

Note that in some instances, the second operand to a conditional operator may not be evaluated. Consider this code segment:

(numChars < LIMIT) && (...)

The && operator will return true only if both operands are true. So, if numChars is greater than or equal to LIMIT, the left-hand operand for && is false, and the return value of && can be determined without evaluating the right-hand operand. In such a case, the interpreter will not evaluate the right-hand operand. This has important implications if the right-hand operand has side effects, such as reading from a stream, updating a value, or making a calculation.

When both operands are boolean, the operator & performs the same operation as &&. However, & always evaluates both of its operands and returns true if both are true. Likewise, when the operands are boolean, | performs the same operation as ||. The | operator always evaluates both of its operands and returns true if at least one of its operands is true. When their operands are numbers, & and | perform bitwise manipulations.

The next section has more information.

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