How do you remember the LESS THAN and GREATER THAN operators?

Question

I have been programming for about 5 years now, and still can't seem to understand, nor remember, what is less than, and what is greater than (< and >, respectively). I tend to debug twice every time I need to use this in a conditional, because I almost never get this right.

Any guides to remembering and learning this?

Answer 1

We were taught this in Junior High School (about 7th grade), based on a number line. Less than is "<" because the numbers are smaller to the left in a number line. The opposite is true for ">".

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I've been interested in the other responses. I had wondered why the OP didn't know this, and had been concerned that it indicated a problem in our educational system since I was in Junior High.

Naturally, most of the responses have been "hungry alligator" responses, which I suspect were learned well before Junior High School, and proving that I should learn to be less judgemental.

Answer 2

The bigger mouth is where the bigger thing is. 5 > 3, 2 < 5.

Answer 3

LOL. In first grade, I made a grade of 0 on an assignment because I got this backwards. I'll tell you what my teacher told me. "Think of it as a hungry alligator with it's mouth open. It wants to eat the bigger number."

Answer 4

I think a great way to remember it is to read the character left to right, just like words.

IE: '>' = GREATER THAN because the left side of that character is bigger than the right side of it.

Conversely, the left side of the '<' character is shorter/smaller/less than the right side, thus LESS THAN operator.

Answer 5

Way back in the misty depths of time when I was little, I seem to recall my maths teacher explaining they were like the jaws of a hungry crocodile, always pointing towards the biggest meals or some such nonsense.

Answer 6

The > operator looks like an opened shark mouth coming to eat you -> MORE DANGEROUS. The < operator looks like an shark running away from you -> LESS DANGEROUS.

Answer 7

Haha, apparently I'm not the only one who was taught with the "Pacman eats the bigger end" method. Nowadays it's just burned into my brain, so when I see < I think "less than" and > "greater than", but the pacman method is the classic.

Answer 8

I have always visualised it in a strange way.

Two lines

_

_

Pushing together one side of the two lines to get < or >

Then if there is a space between the two lines on the right then the number on the right of the < must be bigger than the number on its left and for > I dont see it as the number on the right being smaller but that the number on the left is greater because the gap between the lines is on the left.

Answer 9

The little side is on the little side. The big side is on the big side.

Answer 10

Alot of great answers. The one I haven't seen mentions is:

The "<" looks like an "L" which is the first letter in "Less Than".

If you're doing html you'll never get it wrong.

< = &lt;
> = &gt;

Answer 11

5 years and can't remember which operator is which

Maybe you should consider a different career/hobby

Answer 12

The open end faces the larger of the two. The mouth prefers more food.

(1 < 2); One is less than two.

(2 > 1); Two is greater than one.

(1 < 2 < 3); Two is greater than one and less than three

Check out Wikipedia:Inequality for more in-depth examples.

Answer 13

they are arrowheads pointing at the smaller item

Answer 14

•  ╲
•   ╲
•    ╲
•     ❭ •
•    ╱    
•   ╱
•  ╱

Answer 15

The big guy kills the little guy with an arrow.

Answer 16

Just another reminder:

The Less than points to the Left.

The g**R**eater than points to the Right.

Answer 17

I've never actually thought about how to remember these, but I have never, ever got them confused. So to that end, I had a little think as to how I remember them!

I think it makes sense to me because I consider it a left-to-right thing. We code like a western language; from left-to-right. So > to me is pointing forwards. And < is pointing backwards.

If I think of "backwards" in a chronological sense, I will think "less than".

Equally, if I think of "forwards" in a chronological sense, I will think "greater than".

I think that's what goes through my head, anyway!

Answer 18

Someone told me in grade school that < meant less than and > meant greater than. This was about the same time I was informed that ∪ meant set union, ∩ meant set intersection etc.

This is similar to knowing that red traffic light means stop and green means go.

Answer 19

The two symbols look like noses. It's better to stick something small up your nose than something big. (A mnemonic and valuable life advice, all in one answer.)

Answer 20

#define GREATER_THAN <
#define LESS_THAN >

Answer 21

Imagine there's two people you can't see, each can be a grown up or a child. Now imagine they are trying to lift a plank from the floor.

• If the left one is a child and the right one is a grown up, the plank is lifted more on the right <
• If they are both children or grown ups, the plank gets lifted the same =
• If the left one is a grown up and the right one is a child, the plank gets lifted more on the left >

Now I need to imagine an explanation for the NOT EQUAL operator...