Flash CS3 Documentation

ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference > ActionScript language elements > Operators > < less than operator

< less than operator

expression1 < expression2

Compares two expressions and determines whether expression1 is less than expression2; if so, the operator returns true. If expression1 is greater than or equal to expression2, the operator returns false. String expressions are evaluated using alphabetical order; all capital letters come before lowercase letters.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Player 4 - In Flash 4, < is a numeric operator. In Flash 5 and later, the < (less than) operator is a comparison operator capable of handling various data types. Flash 4 files that are brought into the Flash 5 or later authoring environment undergo a conversion process to maintain data type integrity. The following illustrates the conversion of a Flash 4 file containing a numeric quality comparison.

Flash 4 file: x < y

Converted Flash 5 or later file: Number(x) < Number(y)

Operands

expression1 : Number - A number or string.

expression2 : Number - A number or string.

Returns

Boolean - The Boolean result of the comparison.

Example

The following examples show true and false returns for both numeric and string comparisons:

trace(3 < 10); // true 
trace(10 < 3); // false 
trace("Allen" < "Jack"); // true 
trace("Jack" < "Allen"); //false 
trace("11" < "3"); // true 
trace("11" < 3); // false (numeric comparison) 
trace("C" < "abc"); // true 
trace("A" < "a"); // true 

Flash CS3