assignment operator vs equality operator

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What is the difference between = (Assignment) and == (Equal to) operators

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The “ = ” is an assignment operator used to assign the value on the right to the variable on the left. 

For example:

Example:  

== operator

The ‘==’ operator checks whether the two given operands are equal or not. If so, it returns true. Otherwise it returns false. 

The differences can be shown in tabular form as follows:

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Home » C programming

What is the difference between = (Assignment) and == (Equal to) operators in C?

Difference between assignment (=) vs equal to (==) operators in c.

Many times this question arises what is the difference between = and == operators in C programming language? Here we are going to tell you exactly what the differences between these two operators are.

Assignment Operator (=)

= is an Assignment Operator in C, C++ and other programming languages, It is Binary Operator which operates on two operands.

= assigns the value of right side expression’s or variable’s value to the left side variable.

Let's understand by example:

Here, When first expression evaluates value of (a+b) will be assigned into x and in second expression y=x; value of variable x will be assigned into y .

Equal To Operator (==)

== is an Equal To Operator in C and C++ only, It is Binary Operator which operates on two operands.

== compares value of left and side expressions, return 1 if they are equal other will it will return 0.

When expression x==y evaluates, it will return 1 (it means condition is TRUE ) and "TRUE" will print.

So it's cleared now, , both are not same , = is an Assignment Operator it is used to assign the value of variable or expression, while == is an Equal to Operator and it is a relation operator used for comparison (to compare value of both left and right side operands).

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What's the Difference Between the Assignment (`=`) and Equality (`==`, `===`) Operators?

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People who are new to programming often find it difficult to understand the difference between = , == , and === .

In mathematics we only use = , so what do the other two mean?

The Solution

The = is an assignment operator, while == and === are called equality operators.

Assignment Operator ( = )

In mathematics and algebra, = is an equal to operator. In programming = is an assignment operator , which means that it assigns a value to a variable.

For example, the following code will store a value of 5 in the variable x :

We can combine the declaration and assignment in one line:

It may look like the assignment operator works the same way as algebra’s equal to operator, but that’s not the case.

For example, the following doesn’t make any sense in algebra:

But it is acceptable in JavaScript (and other programming languages). JavaScript will take the expression on the right-hand side of the operator x + 4 and store this value in x again.

Equality Operator ( == )

In JavaScript, the operator that compares two values is written like this: == . It is called an equality operator . The equality operator is one of the many comparison operators in JavaScript that are used in logical and conditional statements.

The equality operator returns true or false based on whether the operands (the values being compared) are equal.

For example, the following code will return false :

Interestingly, if we compare an integer 5 and a string "5" it returns true .

That is because in most cases, if the two operands are not of the same type, JavaScript attempts to convert them to an appropriate type for comparison. This behavior generally results in comparing the operands numerically.

Strict Equality Operator ( === )

Like the equality operator above, the strict equality operator compares the two values. But unlike the equality operator, the strict equality operator compares both the content and the type of the operands.

So using the strict equality operator, 5 and "5" are not equal.

It is better to use the strict equality operator to prevent type conversions, which may result in unexpected bugs. But if you’re certain the types on both sides will be the same, there is no problem with using the shorter operator.

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• Assignment operators

An assignment operator assigns a value to its left operand based on the value of its right operand.

The basic assignment operator is equal ( = ), which assigns the value of its right operand to its left operand. That is, x = y assigns the value of y to x . The other assignment operators are usually shorthand for standard operations, as shown in the following definitions and examples.

Simple assignment operator which assigns a value to a variable. The assignment operation evaluates to the assigned value. Chaining the assignment operator is possible in order to assign a single value to multiple variables. See the example.

Addition assignment

The addition assignment operator adds the value of the right operand to a variable and assigns the result to the variable. The types of the two operands determine the behavior of the addition assignment operator. Addition or concatenation is possible. See the addition operator for more details.

Subtraction assignment

The subtraction assignment operator subtracts the value of the right operand from a variable and assigns the result to the variable. See the subtraction operator for more details.

Multiplication assignment

The multiplication assignment operator multiplies a variable by the value of the right operand and assigns the result to the variable. See the multiplication operator for more details.

Division assignment

The division assignment operator divides a variable by the value of the right operand and assigns the result to the variable. See the division operator for more details.

Remainder assignment

The remainder assignment operator divides a variable by the value of the right operand and assigns the remainder to the variable. See the remainder operator for more details.

Exponentiation assignment

This is an experimental technology, part of the ECMAScript 2016 (ES7) proposal. Because this technology's specification has not stabilized, check the compatibility table for usage in various browsers. Also note that the syntax and behavior of an experimental technology is subject to change in future version of browsers as the spec changes.

The exponentiation assignment operator evaluates to the result of raising first operand to the power second operand. See the exponentiation operator for more details.

Left shift assignment

The left shift assignment operator moves the specified amount of bits to the left and assigns the result to the variable. See the left shift operator for more details.

Right shift assignment

The right shift assignment operator moves the specified amount of bits to the right and assigns the result to the variable. See the right shift operator for more details.

Unsigned right shift assignment

The unsigned right shift assignment operator moves the specified amount of bits to the right and assigns the result to the variable. See the unsigned right shift operator for more details.

Bitwise AND assignment

The bitwise AND assignment operator uses the binary representation of both operands, does a bitwise AND operation on them and assigns the result to the variable. See the bitwise AND operator for more details.

Bitwise XOR assignment

The bitwise XOR assignment operator uses the binary representation of both operands, does a bitwise XOR operation on them and assigns the result to the variable. See the bitwise XOR operator for more details.

Bitwise OR assignment

The bitwise OR assignment operator uses the binary representation of both operands, does a bitwise OR operation on them and assigns the result to the variable. See the bitwise OR operator for more details.

Left operand with another assignment operator

In unusual situations, the assignment operator (e.g. x += y ) is not identical to the meaning expression (here x = x + y ). When the left operand of an assignment operator itself contains an assignment operator, the left operand is evaluated only once. For example:

Specifications

Browser compatibility.

• Arithmetic operators

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Assignment vs Equality

Kenneth Leroy Busbee

Assignment  sets and/or re-sets the value stored in the storage location denoted by a variable name. [1] Equality is a relational operator that tests or defines the relationship between two entities. [2]

Most control structures use a test expression that executes either selection (as in the: if then else) or iteration (as in the while; do while; or for loops) based on the truthfulness or falseness of the expression. Thus, we often talk about the Boolean expression that is controlling the structure. Within many programming languages, this expression must be a Boolean expression and is governed by a tight set of rules. However, in many programming languages, each data type can be used as a Boolean expression because each data type can be demoted into a Boolean value by using the rule/concept that zero and nothing represent false and all non-zero values represent true.

Within various languages, we have the potential added confusion of the equals symbol = as an operator that does not represent the normal math meaning of equality that we have used for most of our life. The equals symbol typically means: assignment. To get the equality concept of math we often use two equal symbols to represent the relational operator of equality. Let’s consider:

The test expression of the control structure will always be true because the expression is an assignment (not the relational operator of == ). It assigns the ‘y’ to the variable pig, then looks at the value in pig and determines that it is not zero; therefore the expression is true. And it will always be true and the else part will never be executed. This is not what the programmer had intended. The correct syntax for a Boolean expression is:

This example reminds you that you must be careful in creating your test expressions so that they are indeed a question, usually involving the relational operators. Some programming languages will generate a warning or an error when an assignment is used in a Boolean expression, and some do not.

Don’t get caught using assignment for equality.

• cnx.org: Programming Fundamentals – A Modular Structured Approach using C++
• Wikipedia: Assignment (computer science) ↵
• Wikipedia: Relational operator ↵

Programming Fundamentals Copyright © 2018 by Kenneth Leroy Busbee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Assignment vs. the comparison operator

A common syntax error experienced by beginner Python programmers is in using the assignment operator = instead of the equality operator == in a conditional expression:

This assignment a = 5 does not return a value, it simply assigns the integer object 5 to the variable name a , and so there is nothing corresponding to True or False that the if statement can use: hence the SyntaxError . This contrasts with the C language in which an assignment returns the value of the variable being assigned (and so the statement a = 5 evaluates to true ). This behaviour is the source of many hard-to-find bugs and security vulnerabilities and its omission from the Python language is by design.

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4.6: Assignment vs Equality

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Assignment sets and/or re-sets the value stored in the storage location denoted by a variable name. [1] Equality is a relational operator that tests or defines the relationship between two entities. [2]

Most control structures use a test expression that executes either selection (as in the: if then else) or iteration (as in the while; do while; or for loops) based on the truthfulness or falseness of the expression. Thus, we often talk about the Boolean expression that is controlling the structure. Within many programming languages, this expression must be a Boolean expression and is governed by a tight set of rules. However, in many programming languages, each data type can be used as a Boolean expression because each data type can be demoted into a Boolean value by using the rule/concept that zero and nothing represent false and all non-zero values represent true.

Within various languages, we have the potential added confusion of the equals symbol = as an operator that does not represent the normal math meaning of equality that we have used for most of our life. The equals symbol typically means: assignment. To get the equality concept of math we often use two equal symbols to represent the relational operator of equality. Let’s consider:

The test expression of the control structure will always be true because the expression is an assignment (not the relational operator of == ). It assigns the ‘y’ to the variable pig, then looks at the value in pig and determines that it is not zero; therefore the expression is true. And it will always be true and the else part will never be executed. This is not what the programmer had intended. The correct syntax for a Boolean expression is:

This example reminds you that you must be careful in creating your test expressions so that they are indeed a question, usually involving the relational operators. Some programming languages will generate a warning or an error when an assignment is used in a Boolean expression, and some do not.

Don’t get caught using assignment for equality.

• cnx.org: Programming Fundamentals – A Modular Structured Approach using C++
• Wikipedia: Assignment (computer science) ↵
• Wikipedia: Relational operator ↵

📓 Assignment, Comparison, and Equality Operators

JavaScript has many operators for many different situations. We've already learned about a two types of operators:

• Arithmetic operators: + , - , * , and / .
• The assignment operator: =

Let's now take the time to learn about more JavaScript operators used for assignment and comparison. For a list of all JavaScript operators, visit the MDN reference page on Expressions and Operators . We'll be linking to specific sections within the MDN "Expressions and Operators" page throughout this lesson.

Assignment Operators ​

We've already seen how we can use the = assignment operator to set a variable equal to a value.

The = is called an assignment operator because it assigns the value on the right of the operator to the variable on the left. In the above example, favoriteNumber is assigned the value 42.

Another assignment operator is the += operator, because it also assigns a new value to the variable on the left based on the value to the right.

There is an assignment operator for each of the mathematical functions: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

When you use any of these assignment operators, the value of the variable on the left side is changed by the math operation and value on the right. Let's do one of each:

Documentation on Assignment Operators ​

Visit this link for the MDN reference page on assignment operators:

• Assignment Operators

Comparison Operators ​

Assignment operators change the value of the variable on the left of the operator. Comparison operators do not change any values, but return the booleans true or false depending on whether the JavaScript expression evaluates as true or false.

Comparison operators are also called relational operators , because they help find the relationship between two operands, asking questions like "is 10 bigger than 5?".

Greater Than Operator > ​

> means "greater-than (and not equal to)":

• 3 > 4 evaluates to false .
• 3 > 3 also evaluates to false , because 3 is equal to 3 and not greater.
• 3 > 2 evaluates to true .

Less Than Operator < ​

< is the opposite of > . It means "less-than (and not equal to)":

• 3 < 5 evaluates to true .
• 3 < 3 evaluates to false because they are equal.

Greater Than or Equal Operator >= ​

>= is the same as > , except it evaluates to true if the two sides are equal:

• 3 >= 3 evaluates to true
• 3 >= 2 also evaluates to true .

Less Than or Equal Operator <= ​

<= is the opposite of >= . It means "less-than-or-equal-to":

• 3 <= 3 evaluates to true because 3 is equal to 3.
• 3 <= 1 evaluates to false
• 3 <= 5 evaluates to true .

In the above examples, notice that the comparison operators return one of two values: true or false . Notice that there are no quotes around these values. true and false aren't strings — they're called booleans . They simply represent being true or false.

Documentation on Comparison/Relational Operators ​

Visit this link for the MDN reference page on relational operators:

• Relational Operators

Equality Operators ​

We can also compare the equality of two operands with equality operators . This means we can check to see whether or not two operands have the same value. Equality operators return a boolean ; true or false .

Notice the triple equal signs syntax: === . This is a type of equality operator called strict equality . We use 3 equal signs === when we are asking if two operands are equal to each other. When we're assigning a variable to a value, such as const myNumber = 5 we use a single equal sign = . Mixing these up is one of the easiest syntax errors to make.

JavaScript also has an equal operator with 2 equal signs, == , but it is almost never used and you should generally avoid it. Try out this example in the DevTools Console:

The double equals operator returns true when comparing 5 == "5" , indicating that a number and a string are the same. Whereas the strict equality operator with 3 equal signs returns false when comparing 5 === "5" , because a number and a string are not the same data type. With the double equals operator, JavaScript will make the assumption that you want the two different data types to be evaluated the same. As a developer you may not be expecting that assumption and this can lead to confusing bugs in your code.

Take some time to play around more with the double equals operator and the strict equality operator by visiting the MDN documentation:

• Strict Equality Operator
• Double Equals Operator

We can also check the opposite of equality — not being equal — with the inequality operator !== .

Equality operators work for strings as well.

Notice that if you type greeting after using the equality operators, you will see that the variable greeting still contains the string "hello world" . Comparison and equality operators do not change the value of the variable. Let's look at another example to illustrate that important difference between assignment operators and comparison/equality operators.

Notice that we use let instead of const here because we reassign the value of myNumber to 10. We wouldn't be able to do that if myNumber were a constant variable declared with const .

Here are some more examples of equality operators.

Equality Operator === ​

=== means "equal-to".

• 5 === 5 or "cat" === "cat" evaluate to true
• 3 === 5 or "cat" === "dog" evaluate to false .

Inequality Operator !== ​

!== means "not-equal-to". It is the opposite of === .

• "cat" !== "dog" evaluates to true
• 5 !== 5 evaluates to false , because saying that 5 is not equal to 5 is not true.

Documentation on Equality Operators ​

Visit this link for the MDN reference page on equality operators:

• Equality Operators

Difference between equal to (==) and assignment operator (=) in Python

In this article, we would discuss the difference between equal to (==) and assignment operator (=) in Python. In programming languages, we need to assign values to the variables this is achieved through assignment operator . Furthermore, to compare values stored in variables we use comparison operators. Want to know about comparison operators in Python ? equal to comes under the category of comparison operators.

If you have just started with Python then it may look confusing in the beginning. But, these are pretty easy to use once we understand what we are trying to achieve with both these operators. So, we start with the basic introduction followed by relevant examples.

Firstly, equal to (==) operator – as already discussed it is a comparison operator. It is used to check if two values/variables are equal. For instance, string “abc” is equal to string “abc” but not equal to string “xyz”. If the condition satisfies then, it returns with True otherwise False. In addition to, it won’t always be plain True/False outcome. At times, we would ask the interpreter to execute a specific code if a condition satisfies otherwise something else. Even for those cases, the equal to (==) operator works just fine.

Now, understand it with couple of examples next. We compare an integer with integer and then string with a string.

For both, it would return with True .

As expected, it returns with False . We go a step further and use if..else statement .

It would return with –

Note: Please take care of indentation in above code otherwise it would result in an error.

Here, if..else statement checks whether x is equal to 1 or not. And, shows the outcome accordingly. If you want to know more about if..else statement in Python .

Secondly, assignment (=) operator – these are used to assign values to the variable. If we want to write an efficient and clutter-free code then, we have to assign values to the variables. And, these variables can later be used to perform various operations. So, this is how it works –

Clearly, we assigned some value to x and y variables. Later, these we printed using print() method.

In conclusion , we have covered difference between equal to and assignment operators operator in Python here.

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Assignment vs Equality

Kenneth Leroy Busbee

Assignment  sets and/or re-sets the value stored in the storage location denoted by a variable name. [1] Equality is a relational operator that tests or defines the relationship between two entities. [2]

Most control structures use a test expression that executes either selection (as in the: if then else) or iteration (as in the while; do while; or for loops) based on the truthfulness or falseness of the expression. Thus, we often talk about the Boolean expression that is controlling the structure. Within many programming languages, this expression must be a Boolean expression and is governed by a tight set of rules. However, in many programming languages, each data type can be used as a Boolean expression because each data type can be demoted into a Boolean value by using the rule/concept that zero and nothing represent false and all non-zero values represent true.

Within various languages, we have the potential added confusion of the equals symbol = as an operator that does not represent the normal math meaning of equality that we have used for most of our life. The equals symbol typically means: assignment. To get the equality concept of math we often use two equal symbols to represent the relational operator of equality. Let’s consider:

The test expression of the control structure will always be true because the expression is an assignment (not the relational operator of == ). It assigns the ‘y’ to the variable pig, then looks at the value in pig and determines that it is not zero; therefore the expression is true. And it will always be true and the else part will never be executed. This is not what the programmer had intended. The correct syntax for a Boolean expression is:

This example reminds you that you must be careful in creating your test expressions so that they are indeed a question, usually involving the relational operators. Some programming languages will generate a warning or an error when an assignment is used in a Boolean expression, and some do not.

Don’t get caught using assignment for equality.

• archive.org: Programming Fundamentals – A Modular Structured Approach using C++
• Wikipedia: Assignment (computer science) ↵
• Wikipedia: Relational operator ↵

Programming Fundamentals Copyright © 2018 by Kenneth Leroy Busbee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

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Assignment Operators (Visual Basic)

• 10 contributors

The following are the assignment operators defined in Visual Basic.

^= Operator

*= Operator

/= Operator

\= Operator

+= Operator

-= Operator

<<= Operator

>>= Operator

&= Operator

• Operator Precedence in Visual Basic
• Operators Listed by Functionality

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Additional resources

PRDV401: Introduction to JavaScript I

Assignment vs. equality operator.

One of the common errors in programming is misusing the assignment ( = ) and equality ( == ) operators. Read this article to see how to avoid this runtime error.

Assignment sets and/or re-sets the value stored in the storage location denoted by a variable name. Equality is a relational operator that tests or defines the relationship between two entities.

Most control structures use a test expression that executes either selection (as in the: if then else) or iteration (as in the while; do while; or for loops) based on the truthfulness or falseness of the expression. Thus, we often talk about the Boolean expression that is controlling the structure. Within many programming languages, this expression must be a Boolean expression and is governed by a tight set of rules. However, in many programming languages, each data type can be used as a Boolean expression because each data type can be demoted into a Boolean value by using the rule/concept that zero and nothing represent false and all non-zero values represent true.

Within various languages, we have the potential added confusion of the equals symbol = as an operator that does not represent the normal math meaning of equality that we have used for most of our life. The equals symbol typically means: assignment. To get the equality concept of math we often use two equal symbols to represent the relational operator of equality. Let's consider:

The test expression of the control structure will always be true because the expression is an assignment (not the relational operator of == ). It assigns the 'y' to the variable pig, then looks at the value in pig and determines that it is not zero; therefore the expression is true. And it will always be true and the else part will never be executed. This is not what the programmer had intended. The correct syntax for a Boolean expression is:

This example reminds you that you must be careful in creating your test expressions so that they are indeed a question, usually involving the relational operators. Some programming languages will generate a warning or an error when an assignment is used in a Boolean expression, and some do not.

Don't get caught using assignment for equality.

Differences between the Equality operator (==) and the Assignment operator (=)

Flash Professional CC

In Macromedia Flash 5, the assignment operator (=) and the equality operator (==) appear to be similar but are used for completely different reasons.

The assignment operator (=) is used to assign a value to a variable, element of an array, or property of an object. Here are a few examples of using the assignment operator:

The equality operator (==) is used to compare two values or expressions. It is used to compare numbers, strings, Boolean values, variables, objects, arrays, or functions. The result is TRUE if the expressions are equal and FALSE otherwise. How items are compared depends on their data type:

• Numbers, strings, and Boolean values are compared by value , and are considered equal if they have the same value. For instance, two strings are equal if they have the same number of characters.
• Variables, objects, arrays, and functions are compared by reference . Two variables are equal if they refer to the same object, array, or function. Two separate arrays are never considered equal, even if they have the same number of elements.

For example, in the following expression, the value of userName and the string "Jack" are the same and expression evaluates to TRUE:

The second expression evaluates to FALSE because "Jack" is not the same string value as "jack".

However, when comparing two variables, array, objects, or functions, an equality expression will evaluate to TRUE only if the items being compared point to the same reference. For example, consider the following:

Although the two variables contain the same value the variables themselves are not equal, since they point to different references. For example:

The second expression is TRUE because the two variables were first evaluated (using the eval function) and their values, rather than their references, are being compared.

A practical example of using the equality operator

The equality operator is often used in the following manner to check if a movie has completely loaded:

Additional Information

For more details on preloading a movie please refer to How to create movies that download before playing (TechNote12588).

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