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Python Relational Operators

Relational operators compare two things, like asking whether one kid is taller than another. The answer is always True or False.

In this page:

  1. Equality and Inequality
  2. Greater Than and Less Than
  3. Greater Than or Equal to and Less Than or Equal to
  4. Comparing Strings
  5. Chaining Operators
Syntax
python 
result = a == b  # also !=, >, <, >=, <=

Equality and Inequality

== checks whether two values are equal and != checks whether they differ; both always return a bool, and it's a common beginner mistake to write = (assignment) where == (comparison) was intended.

Example: Equality and Inequality

python 
print(5 == 5)
print(5 != 3)

Greater Than and Less Than

> and < compare magnitude between two values — numbers compare by value, and the result is always True or False, ready to be used directly inside an if statement's condition.

Example: Greater Than and Less Than

python 
print(7 > 3)
print(2 < 1)

Greater Than or Equal to and Less Than or Equal to

>= and <= behave like > and < but also count equality as satisfying the condition, which matters whenever a boundary value itself should be included in a valid range, like an age cutoff of "18 or older."

Example: Greater Than or Equal to and Less Than or Equal to

python 
age = 18
print(age >= 18)

Comparing Strings

Strings compare lexicographically, meaning character by character using each character's underlying code point — so "apple" < "banana" is True because a comes before b, the same logic a dictionary uses for alphabetical order.

Example: Comparing Strings

python 
print("apple" < "banana")

Chaining Operators

Python allows chained comparisons like 0 <= score <= 100, which reads naturally and is equivalent to writing 0 <= score and score <= 100 — a concise way to check that a value falls within a range without repeating the variable.

Example: Chaining Operators

python 
score = 75
print(0 <= score <= 100)
Related Topics

Python Arithmetic Operators · Python Logical Operators · Python Bitwise Operators · Python Assignment Operators

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Common Mistakes
  1. Using = instead of == in a condition, as in if x = 5:, which is a SyntaxError.
  2. Comparing a string with a number like "5" == 5, which is False because the types differ.
  3. Comparing strings and expecting numeric order: "10" < "9" is True because strings compare character by character.
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