The = Command

equal.png

Command Summary

Tests if two values are equal.

Command Syntax

value1=value 2

Menu Location

Press the [=] key to enter =.

Calculator Compatibility

This command works on all calculators.

Token Size

1 byte

The = operator compares two values, returning true if they're equal, and false otherwise. It is a basic building block of the conditions used by commands such as If, when(), and While. The results of = and the other relational operators (, >, , <, and ) can be combined with the and, or, xor, and not operators to create more complicated conditions.

It returns a single value for most types of data, and returns false if the two sides are mismatched in type: comparing a single number to a list, for instance, or comparing two lists that are of a different size. The only exception is when comparing two lists or two matrices of the same size: in that case, it compares them element-by-element, and returns a list or matrix of true/false values.

:2+2=4
           true
:2+2=5
           false
:{1,2,3}={1,4,3}
           {true  false  true}

If either side or both contains undefined variables, = will wait to return a value unless it's something clearly true for any value of the variable (for instance, x=x). You can do math with the resulting equation (most operations will be applied to both sides), and extract the two halves of it with left() and right().

Optimization

Testing "If x=true" is redundant in most cases; you can shorten that to "If x". Similarly, "If x=false" can be "If not x".

Related Commands

  • (not equal)
  • > (greater than)
  • (greater than or equal)
  • < (less than)
  • (less than or equal)

See Also

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