Relational Operators

Operator	Meaning
<	less-than
>	greater-than
<=	less-than-or-equal-to
>=	greater-than-or-equal-to

The relational operators perform comparisons between values and return a Boolean value:

 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        var result1 = 5 > 3; 
        document.writeln(result1); //true 
        var result2 = 5 < 3; 
        document.writeln(result2); //false 

    </script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Click to view the demo

Rules for Relational Operators:

Operand	Operand	Result
number	number	numeric comparison
string	string	compare the character codes in the string
number	any value	convert operand 2 to a number and then do the comparison
any value	number	convert operand 1 to a number and then do the comparison
object	any value	call valueOf() and then do the comparison. If valueOf() is not available, call toString().
any value	object	call valueOf() and then do the comparison. If valueOf() is not available, call toString().
Boolean	any value	convert Boolean to a number and then do the comparison
any value	Boolean	convert Boolean to a number and then do the comparison

The character codes uppercase letters are lower than the character codes of lowercase letters.

 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        var result = "B" < "a";
        document.writeln(result); //true 
        
    </script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Click to view the demo

To force an alphabetic result, you can convert both operands into a upper or lower case:

 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <script type="text/javascript">

        var result = "B".toLowerCase() < "a".toLowerCase();
        document.writeln(result); //false 

    </script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Click to view the demo

Comparing numbers that are strings:

 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        var result = "23" < "3"; 
        document.writeln(result);//true 
    </script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Click to view the demo

The code above returns true because the character code for "2" is 50 and the character code for "3" is 51.

Comparing a string and a number:

 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    
        var result = "23" < 3; 
        document.writeln(result);//false
       
    </script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Click to view the demo

The code above returns false because "23" is converted into the number 23 and then compared to 3.

Comparing a not-able-to-convert-to-number string and a number:

 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    
        var result = "a" < 3; //"a" becomes NaN 
        document.writeln(result);//false

    </script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Click to view the demo

Compare with NaN:

 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    
        var result1 = NaN < 3; 
        document.writeln(result1);//false 
        var result2 = NaN >= 3; 
        document.writeln(result2);//false 

       
    </script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Click to view the demo