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While browsing my code in a weakly-typed language I was seeing that I've trained myself to use identity (===) where logical. Then I came across a greater (or less) than or equal to (>=), and it made me wonder... why is there no "greater than or identical to"? I suppose it would be >==. For example...

5 == 5    // true
5 === 5   // true
5.5 >= 5  // true
5.5 >== 5 // false
6 >= 5    // true
6 >== 5   // true

Basically, I would throw a false if it was of a different type. For example, if I want to check if $x is greater than $y, but I want them both to be integers (or floats, but no mixing), then wouldn't it make sense to have a single call that can do all that, rather than having to check separately to see if they were the same type?

A quick google indicated that this may not exist in any language; why not? Is it just not as useful as I might think it is? :)

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    @Frustrated: I think because 5.5 is floating point type and 5 is an integer type, and the identity operator returns false if two values are different types.
    – Matt H
    Jan 27, 2011 at 21:48
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    @Matt: That sort of makes sense... but that means that the hypothetical >== is doing two things: testing that the two operands and if they are, compare values of them. That is confusing and I don't like it. Would >== only be applicable to numeric operands? What if I tried $shoppingcart >== $user_acct_info? Would that even make sense? I think that $shoppingcart === $user_acct_info might make sense (I think it would test if the two are of the same type), but >==? ... I dunno man...
    – FrustratedWithFormsDesigner
    Jan 27, 2011 at 21:52
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    Isn't === doing two things, though? It tests that the two operands are identical and, if they are, compares the values.
    – Andrew
    Jan 27, 2011 at 21:55
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    @Frustrated, I don't understand your last comment.
    – Andrew
    Jan 27, 2011 at 21:59
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    @Andrew: === does one thing - tests if two things are identical including their types. Your proposed >== tests if the types are identical and if so compares them. If this is a valid operation, then so is "test if they are the same type and if so, check if one is strictly greater than the other", and how would you notate that?
    – Anon.
    Jan 27, 2011 at 22:11

2 Answers 2

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At first glance it does seem like this is an inadequacy in a language that uses === (examples are in JavaScript):

5 == "5" // true
5 === "5" // false
5 >= "5" // true

However, two things:

  1. In PHP, there are few if any instances in which a string number isn't converted automatically into a number type. (See my answer about casting in PHP)

  2. Using === with numbers isn't really that useful - after all, implicit conversion is a feature of weak typing that is usually desirable. The much more common usage is making sure you getting the right comparison with all the "falsey" values -- null, undefined, 0, false, "".

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  • Thanks for the link and the answer. I personally use explicit typecasting only as a method for sanitizing for database input; if I know that the field expects an int, I can simply cast it to int rather than go through the escaping and quoting business. And yes, I try to avoid using === for numbers because sometimes a query or form might have inserted a numeric string into the process. Or, sometimes when I'm passing it to something expecting a boolean. But as you said, typecasting "down".
    – Andrew
    Jan 28, 2011 at 14:12
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I think that such an operator would be too confusing by mixing the concepts of logical ordering and object identity. A proper implementation of >= and <= should account for this scenario anyway. Maybe I'm wrong, it's been a while since I've used PHP.

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