Unix / Linux - Shell Relational Operators Example

Bourne Shell supports the following relational operators that are specific to numeric values. These operators do not work for string values unless their value is numeric.

Assume variable a holds 10 and variable b holds 20 then −

Operator	Description	Example
-eq	Checks if the value of two operands are equal or not; if yes, then the condition becomes true.	[ $a -eq $b ] is not true.
-ne	Checks if the value of two operands are equal or not; if values are not equal, then the condition becomes true.	[ $a -ne $b ] is true.
-gt	Checks if the value of left operand is greater than the value of right operand; if yes, then the condition becomes true.	[ $a -gt $b ] is not true.
-lt	Checks if the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand; if yes, then the condition becomes true.	[ $a -lt $b ] is true.
-ge	Checks if the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of right operand; if yes, then the condition becomes true.	[ $a -ge $b ] is not true.
-le	Checks if the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right operand; if yes, then the condition becomes true.	[ $a -le $b ] is true.

It is very important to understand that all the conditional expressions should be placed inside square braces with spaces around them. For example, [ $a <= $b ] is correct whereas, [$a <= $b] is incorrect.

Example

Here is an example which uses all the relational operators −

Live Demo

#!/bin/sh

a=10
b=20

if [ $a -eq $b ]
then
   echo "$a -eq $b : a is equal to b"
else
   echo "$a -eq $b: a is not equal to b"
fi

if [ $a -ne $b ]
then
   echo "$a -ne $b: a is not equal to b"
else
   echo "$a -ne $b : a is equal to b"
fi

if [ $a -gt $b ]
then
   echo "$a -gt $b: a is greater than b"
else
   echo "$a -gt $b: a is not greater than b"
fi

if [ $a -lt $b ]
then
   echo "$a -lt $b: a is less than b"
else
   echo "$a -lt $b: a is not less than b"
fi

if [ $a -ge $b ]
then
   echo "$a -ge $b: a is greater or  equal to b"
else
   echo "$a -ge $b: a is not greater or equal to b"
fi

if [ $a -le $b ]
then
   echo "$a -le $b: a is less or  equal to b"
else
   echo "$a -le $b: a is not less or equal to b"
fi

The above script will generate the following result −

10 -eq 20: a is not equal to b
10 -ne 20: a is not equal to b
10 -gt 20: a is not greater than b
10 -lt 20: a is less than b
10 -ge 20: a is not greater or equal to b
10 -le 20: a is less or  equal to b

The following points need to be considered while working with relational operators −

There must be spaces between the operators and the expressions. For example, 2+2 is not correct; it should be written as 2 + 2.
if...then...else...fi statement is a decision-making statement which has been explained in the next chapter.

unix-basic-operators.htm