Comparing two numbers

Question

Challenge

Given two integers A and B as input, you must write a program which outputs if A>B, A==B or A<B.

The integers will be in any reasonable range supported by your language which includes at least 256 values.

Your program can be either a full program or a function, taking input via STDIN or function arguments.

Outputs

If A>B output

A is greater than B

If A==B output

A is equal to B

If A<B output

A is less than B

Where you replace A and B for their integer values.

For example:

 A   B   Output
--  --   ------
 0   1   0 is less than 1
 5   2   5 is greater than 2
20  20   20 is equal to 20

Winning

The shortest program in bytes wins.

Leaderboard

var QUESTION_ID=55693,OVERRIDE_USER=8478;function answersUrl(e){return"http://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/questions/"+QUESTION_ID+"/answers?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+ANSWER_FILTER}function commentUrl(e,s){return"http://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/answers/"+s.join(";")+"/comments?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+COMMENT_FILTER}function getAnswers(){jQuery.ajax({url:answersUrl(answer_page++),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){answers.push.apply(answers,e.items),answers_hash=[],answer_ids=[],e.items.forEach(function(e){e.comments=[];var s=+e.share_link.match(/\d+/);answer_ids.push(s),answers_hash[s]=e}),e.has_more||(more_answers=!1),comment_page=1,getComments()}})}function getComments(){jQuery.ajax({url:commentUrl(comment_page++,answer_ids),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){e.items.forEach(function(e){e.owner.user_id===OVERRIDE_USER&&answers_hash[e.post_id].comments.push(e)}),e.has_more?getComments():more_answers?getAnswers():process()}})}function getAuthorName(e){return e.owner.display_name}function process(){var e=[];answers.forEach(function(s){var r=s.body;s.comments.forEach(function(e){OVERRIDE_REG.test(e.body)&&(r="<h1>"+e.body.replace(OVERRIDE_REG,"")+"</h1>")});var a=r.match(SCORE_REG);a&&e.push({user:getAuthorName(s),size:+a[2],language:a[1],link:s.share_link})}),e.sort(function(e,s){var r=e.size,a=s.size;return r-a});var s={},r=1,a=null,n=1;e.forEach(function(e){e.size!=a&&(n=r),a=e.size,++r;var t=jQuery("#answer-template").html();t=t.replace("{{PLACE}}",n+".").replace("{{NAME}}",e.user).replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",e.language).replace("{{SIZE}}",e.size).replace("{{LINK}}",e.link),t=jQuery(t),jQuery("#answers").append(t);var o=e.language;/<a/.test(o)&&(o=jQuery(o).text()),s[o]=s[o]||{lang:e.language,user:e.user,size:e.size,link:e.link}});var t=[];for(var o in s)s.hasOwnProperty(o)&&t.push(s[o]);t.sort(function(e,s){return e.lang>s.lang?1:e.lang<s.lang?-1:0});for(var c=0;c<t.length;++c){var i=jQuery("#language-template").html(),o=t[c];i=i.replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",o.lang).replace("{{NAME}}",o.user).replace("{{SIZE}}",o.size).replace("{{LINK}}",o.link),i=jQuery(i),jQuery("#languages").append(i)}}var ANSWER_FILTER="!t)IWYnsLAZle2tQ3KqrVveCRJfxcRLe",COMMENT_FILTER="!)Q2B_A2kjfAiU78X(md6BoYk",answers=[],answers_hash,answer_ids,answer_page=1,more_answers=!0,comment_page;getAnswers();var SCORE_REG=/<h\d>\s*([^\n,]*[^\s,]),.*?(\d+)(?=[^\n\d<>]*(?:<(?:s>[^\n<>]*<\/s>|[^\n<>]+>)[^\n\d<>]*)*<\/h\d>)/,OVERRIDE_REG=/^Override\s*header:\s*/i;

body{text-align:left!important}#answer-list,#language-list{padding:10px;width:290px;float:left}table thead{font-weight:700}table td{padding:5px}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cdn.sstatic.net/codegolf/all.css?v=83c949450c8b"> <div id="answer-list"> <h2>Leaderboard</h2> <table class="answer-list"> <thead> <tr><td></td><td>Author</td><td>Language</td><td>Size</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="answers"> </tbody> </table> </div><div id="language-list"> <h2>Winners by Language</h2> <table class="language-list"> <thead> <tr><td>Language</td><td>User</td><td>Score</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="languages"> </tbody> </table> </div><table style="display: none"> <tbody id="answer-template"> <tr><td>{{PLACE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table> <table style="display: none"> <tbody id="language-template"> <tr><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table>

Answer 1

Python 2, 95 94 76 bytes

Input must be comma separated.

A,B=input();print A,'is',['equal to','greater than','less than'][cmp(A,B)],B

Answer 2

CJam, 47

q~_~-g"is
equal greater less
to than"N/Sf/f=*S*

Try it online

Explanation:

q~     read and evaluate the input (array of 2 numbers)
_      duplicate the array
~-     dump one array on the stack and subtract the numbers
g      get signum (-1 for <, 0 for ==, 1 for >)
"…"    push that string
N/     split into lines
Sf/    split each line by space
f=     get the corresponding word (for the signum) from each line
*      join the array of 2 numbers by the array of words
        it effectively inserts the words between the numbers
S*     join everything with spaces

Answer 3

Labyrinth, 180 152 149 bytes

<
?01.23.511.501.23};,!:?
:
= ;3.114.101.97.116.101.114.32.116.104.97.110.32.{!@
-""
; ;8.101.115:..""""""""""""^
1
.113.117.97.108.32.116.111.32.{!@

Edit: Managed to shave off 3 bytes by reusing 10 between 101, 103 and 108 (the character codes of e, g and l). The explanation below does not reflect this, but it's not a substantial change.

Explanation

There isn't much we can do in the way of saving bytes for printing the strings, that's just going to be long linear sections. So the main challenge in golfing is to avoid large amounts of unnecessary whitespace. That means we want the linear parts to "radiate out" from the left-most column. We can also gain some more savings by reusing the code that prints than B. So let's look at the control flow here:

The program starts on a grid rotation command <. This shifts the current row cyclically to the left with the IP on it, so we get this:

                                                     <
?.23.511.501.23};,!:?
:
= ;103.114.101.97.116.101.114.32.116.104.97.110.32.{!@
-""
1 ;108.101.115:..""""""""""""^
0
1.113.117.97.108.32.116.111.32.{!@

Now the IP is on an isolated cell, so it executes the same command again and again while the < travels further to the left until...

                    <
?.23.511.501.23};,!:?
:
= ;103.114.101.97.116.101.114.32.116.104.97.110.32.{!@
-""
1 ;108.101.115:..""""""""""""^
0
1.113.117.97.108.32.116.111.32.{!@

At this point, the IP has somewhere to go and executes the first linear section (the second row) from right to left. What it does is read A, copy, print. Consume the delimiting character between the numbers, print is (and spaces). Then read B, copy it and subtract A from it at the -.

At this point we hit first "fork in the road". If the difference yielded 0, the IP keeps moving straight ahead towards the bottom branch. That branch simply prints equal to and then B.

Otherwise, the IP takes a left towards the two no-ops "". Then there's another fork. If the difference was negative, the IP takes another left towards the long upper branch. That branch simply prints greater than and then B.

If the difference was positive, the IP takes a right onto the lower branch, which prints less. Now we want to reuse the than from the other branch. But at the same time we don't want to connect the two branches later on, because we'd need a whole bunch of unnecessary spaces. Instead we use a few no-ops to align the lower branch with where the than begins on the upper branch and then start manipulating the source again with ^:

                    <
?.23.511.501.23};,!:?
:                            .
= ;103.114.101.97.116.101.114 32.116.104.97.110.32.{!@
-""                          ^
1 ;108.101.115:..""""""""""""
0                            2
1.113.117.97.108.32.116.111.3 .{!@

Again, this is isolates the IP, so ^ is executed again and we get

                    <
?.23.511.501.23};,!:?        .
:
= ;103.114.101.97.116.101.114^32.116.104.97.110.32.{!@
-""
1 ;108.101.115:..""""""""""""2
0
1.113.117.97.108.32.116.111.3 .{!@

Now the IP can continue moving to the right and print than and B as required.

Answer 4

JavaScript (ES6), 66 bytes

(a,b)=>a+` is ${a<b?"less than":a>b?"greater than":"equal to"} `+b

Defines an anonymous function. Test by adding f= before it, and call it like alert(f(4, 5))

No savings to be had from the repetitive "than", unfortunately.

Answer 5

Java, 114 113 Bytes or 74 72 67 if we used lambda notation

Thanks to Kevin Cruijssen for currying based solution:

a->b->a+" is "+(a==b?"equal to ":(a>b?"greater":"less")+" than ")+b

Old pre lambda solution

public void c(int a,int b){System.out.print(a+" is "+(a==b?"equal to ":(a>b?"greater":"less")+" than ")+b);}

as user h.j.k meantion in comment, if we used lambda we can do significantly down to 74 bytes.

(a,b)->a+" is "+(a==b?"equal to ":(a>b?"greater":"less")+" than ")+b;

Answer 6

R, 80 bytes

function(A,B)cat(A,"is",c("less than","equal to","greater than")[2+sign(A-B)],B)

Answer 7

Pyth, 52 49 bytes

jdm@cd)._-FQcj"
is
equal greater less
to than
"Qb

Answer 8

Julia, 69 66 bytes

f(A,B)="$A is $(A>B?"greater than":A<B?"less than":"equal to") $B"

This uses string interpolation to embed A, B, and the ternary inside a single string.

Saved 3 bytes thanks to Glen O.

Answer 9

Perl, 64 63 bytes

#!/usr/bin/perl -p
s/ /" is ".("equal to ",greaterx,lessx)[$`<=>$']/e;s/x/ than /

62 bytes + 1 byte for -p. Takes input from STDIN, with the two numbers separated by a single space:

$ echo 1 2 | ./cmp
1 is less than 2
$ echo 42 -17 | ./cmp
42 is greater than -17
$ echo 123456789 123456789 | ./cmp
123456789 is equal to 123456789

How it works:

The <=> operator returns -1, 0, or 1 depending on whether the first operand is less than, equal to, or greater than the second. Conveniently, Perl allows negative subscripts with arrays and slices, where the last element is at position -1, the second-to-last element is at position -2, and so on.

In the code

("equal to ",greaterx,lessx)[$`<=>$']

we use the return value of <=> as the subscript in a list slice to get the corresponding string, where $` is the first number and $' is the second.

To avoid repeating than, x is used as a placeholder and replaced in a second substitution at the end.

---

Alternative solution, 63 bytes

#!/usr/bin/perl -p
@a=(equal,greater,than,to,less);s/ / is @a[$i=$`<=>$',!$i+2] /

62 bytes + 1 byte for -p. Takes space-separated input from STDIN just like the first solution.

How it works:

This solution also uses a slice, but takes advantage of the fact that unlike list slices, array slices can be interpolated into strings (and the RHS of substitutions). This lets us drop the /e modifier and the quotes in the substitution operator.

The real trick is in the slice subscript:

@a[$i=$`<=>$',!$i+2]

For the different values of <=>, this gives:

$i  !$i+2  $a[$i]  $a[!$i+2]
----------------------------
-1    2     less      than
 0    3     equal     to
 1    2     greater   than

When an array or array slice is interpolated into a string, the elements are automatically joined by $" (by default, a single space).

Answer 10

Mouse, 79 bytes

?A:?B:A.!" is "A.B.<["less than"]A.B.>["greater than"]A.B.=["equal to"]" "B.!$

When strings are encountered they're immediately written to STDOUT rather than being put on the stack. The stack can contain only integers.

Ungolfed:

? A:                            ~ Read an integer A from STDIN
? B:                            ~ Read an integer B from STDIN
A. !                            ~ Write A to STDOUT
" is "
A. B. < [ "less than" ]         ~ If A < B
A. B. > [ "greater than" ]      ~ If A > B
A. B. = [ "equal to" ]          ~ If A == B
" "
B. !                            ~ Write B to STDOUT
$                               ~ End of program

Answer 11

GolfScript, 61 bytes

\.@.@="equal to "{.@.@>"greater""less"if" than "+}if" is "\+@

Expects 2 integers on the stack. Try it online.

How it works:

• \.@.@ - A and B are already on the stack, and this code piece makes the stack look like this: ABBA. \ swaps the two top items on the stack, . duplicates the top item, and @ rotates the 3 top items (1 2 3 -> 2 3 1).

• Then, three items are pushed to the stack: the = sign, "equal to ", and the block between {}. The if statement does this: if the first argument evaluates to true, it executes the first code block (the second argument), otherwise, the second code block (the third argument). So if A and B are equal, it will push "equal to " on the stack. If they are not equal, it will execute the code between the block. Note that = pops the two top items from the stack, so now the stack looks like AB.

• Inside the block, you first see .@.@. Before these commands, the stack looks like AB, and after, the stack looks like BAAB. The commands are similar as the ones mentioned above.

• Then, there's another if statement. This time, it checks whether A > B, and if true, it pushes "greater" on the stack. Else, it pushes "less" on the stack. After pushing one of these two, it will push " than " on the stack and concatenate it with the previous pushed string. > also pops the two top items of the stack, so now the stack looks like BA"string".

• The next three commands are: " is "\+. " is " pushes that string on the stack (stack looks like BA"string"" is "), \ swaps the two top items (stack looks like BA" is ""string"), and + concatenates the two top items (stack looks like BA" is string").

• The last command, @, rotates the three stack items, so the stack now looks like: A" is string"B. GolfScript automatically prints the stack values on STDOUT once the program terminates, so then you get the desired output.

Answer 12

MATLAB, 105 bytes

x=input('');y=input('');t={'less than','greater than','equal to'};
sprintf('%i is %s %i',x,t{(x>=y)+(x==y)+1},y)

Added a line break before sprintf, to ease readability. It works both with and without this line break, so it's not included in the byte count. Must hit enter between the two input numbers.

Answer 13

Bash, 76

a=(less\ than equal\ to greater\ than)
echo $1 is ${a[($1>$2)-($1<$2)+1]} $2

Answer 14

Fortran, 129

Fortran arithmetic if is perfect for this challenge

Test: ideone

read(*,*)i,j
if(i-j)1,2,3
1 print*,i," is less than",j
stop
2 print*,j," is equal to",j
stop
3 print*,i," is greater than",j
end

Answer 15

Lua, 118 bytes

I don't see enough Lua answers here so...

function f(a,b)print(a>b and a.." is greater than "..b or a==b and a.." is equal to "..b or a.." is less than "..b)end

Ungolfed:

function f(a,b)
    print(a>b and a.." is greater than "..b or a==b and a.." is equal to "..b or a.." is less than "..b)
end

Answer 16

Bash, 94 86 bytes (saved eight bytes thanks to Digital Trauma)

p=equal;q=than;(($1>$2))&&p=greater&&[ ]||(($1<$2))&&p=less||q=to;echo $1 is $p $q $2

Test (on Linux):

echo 'p=equal;q=than;(($1>$2))&&p=greater&&[ ]||(($1<$2))&&p=less||q=to;echo $1 is $p $q $2' > cmp.sh
chmod +x cmp.sh
./cmp.sh 10 12
10 is less than 12

The use of [ ] after p=greater is to prevent || operator from being evaluated before = in the expression ...&&p=greater||(($1<$2))... (the operator precedence!).

The alternative would be using brackets around (($1>$2))&&p=greater and (($1<$2))&&p=less , but brackets make inner scope for variables, so p would be left unaltered.

Answer 17

IA-32 machine code + linux, 107 bytes

Hexdump of the code:

60 89 e5 89 d0 e8 51 00 00 00 4c c6 04 24 20 38
d1 74 20 68 74 68 61 6e 4c c6 04 24 20 72 0d 68
61 74 65 72 68 20 67 72 65 44 eb 11 68 6c 65 73
73 eb 0a 68 6c 20 74 6f 68 65 71 75 61 68 20 69
73 20 88 c8 e8 12 00 00 00 89 ea 29 e2 89 e1 31
db 43 8d 43 03 cd 80 89 ec 61 c3 5b d4 0a 4c 04
30 88 04 24 c1 e8 08 75 f3 ff e3

Because of hardware limitations, the code works with numbers in the range 0...255.

Source code (can be assembled with gcc):

    .globl print_it
    .text
    .align 16
print_it:
    pushal;
    mov %esp, %ebp; // save esp (stack pointer)
    mov %edx, %eax; // put second number in al
    call prepend;   // convert al to string

    dec %esp;       // write ...
    movb $' ', (%esp); // ... a space
    cmp %dl, %cl;   // compare the numbers
    je equal;       // if equal, goto there

    push $0x6e616874; // write "than"
    dec %esp;       // write ...
    movb $' ', (%esp); // ... a space
    jb less;        // if below, goto there

greater:
    push $0x72657461; // write "ater"
    push $0x65726720; // write " gre"
    inc %esp;         // remove a space
    jmp finish;     // bypass the code for "less than"

less:
    push $0x7373656c; // write "less"
    jmp finish;     // bypass the code for "equal"

equal:
    push $0x6f74206c; // write "l to"
    push $0x61757165; // write "equa"

finish:
    push $0x20736920; // write " is "

    mov %cl, %al;   // put first number in al
    call prepend;   // convert al to string

    mov %ebp, %edx; // calculate the length ...
    sub %esp, %edx; // ... of the output message
    mov %esp, %ecx; // address of the message
    xor %ebx, %ebx; // set ebx to ...
    inc %ebx;       // ... 1 (i.e. stdout)
    lea 3(%ebx), %eax; // set eax=4 (syscall "write")
    int $0x80;      // do the system call
    mov %ebp, %esp; // restore the stack pointer
    popal;          // restore other registers
    ret;            // return

prepend:            // writes al converted to string
    pop %ebx;       // remove return address from the stack
appendloop:
    aam;            // calculate a digit in al, rest in ah
    dec %esp;
    add $'0', %al;  // convert the digit to ASCII
    mov %al, (%esp);// write the digit
    shr $8, %eax;   // replace al by ah; check if zero
    jnz appendloop; // nonzero? repeat
    jmp *%ebx;      // return

---

This is some serious abuse of the stack! The code builds the output message on the stack, from the end to the beginning. To write 4 bytes, it uses a single push instruction. To write 1 byte, it uses two instructions:

dec %esp
mov %al, (%esp);

By luck, most of the fragments to write are 4 bytes. One of them ("gre" in "greater") is 3 bytes; it's handled by pushing 4 bytes and removing one afterwards:

inc %esp

---

The routine that writes numbers in decimal form uses the aam instruction to divide ax by 10 repeatedly. It's advantageous that it calculates the digits from right to left!

---

Since there are two numbers to write, the code uses a subroutine, which is called twice. However, because the subroutine writes the results on the stack, it uses a register to hold the return address.

---

C code that calls the machine code above:

include <stdio.h>

void print_it(int, int) __attribute__((fastcall));

int main()
{
    print_it(90, 102);
    puts("");
    print_it(78, 0);
    puts("");
    print_it(222, 222);
    puts("");
    return 0;
}

Output:

90 is less than 102
78 is greater than 0
222 is equal to 222

Answer 18

Fourier, 147 74 bytes

Non-competing because string printing is newer than this challenge

I~AoI~B` is `<A{1}{`greater than`}A<B{1}{`less than`}A{B}{`equal to`}` `Bo

Try it on FourIDE!

Dunno why I didn't allow printing before... It makes the code readable and is great for golfing

Answer 19

ShortScript, 98 bytes

←Α
←Β
↑Γαis
↔α>β→γgreater thanβ
↔α<β→γless thanβ
↔α|β→γequal toβ

Answer 20

C, 155 136 127 83 bytes

f(a,b){printf("%d is %s %d\n",a,a>b?"greater than":a<b?"less than":"equal to",b);}

Answer 21

Haskell, 87 bytes

One byte shorter than Otomo's approach.

a?b=show a++" is "++["less than ","equal to ","greater than "]!!(1+signum(a-b))++show b

Answer 22

Python 2, 78 bytes

I love how cmp() is really useful, but it was removed in Python 3.

Using an anonymous function:

lambda a,b:`a`+' is '+['equal to ','greater than ','less than '][cmp(a,b)]+`b`

Not using a function (79 bytes):

a,b=input();print a,'is %s'%['equal to','greater than','less than'][cmp(a,b)],b

Answer 23

JavaScript, 151 104 100 95 92 bytes

a+=prompt()
b+=prompt()
alert(a+" is "+(a>b?"greater than ":a<b?"lesser than ":"equal to ")+b)

I managed to shorten with help of edc65

Answer 24

C# 6, 113 103 100 95 bytes

void C(int a,int b){System.Console.Write($"{a} is {a-b:greater than;less than;equal to} {b}");}

Thanks to edc65 for saving 13 bytes and to cell001uk for saving 5 bytes using C# 6's interpolated strings!

Answer 25

Rust, 271 bytes

use std::cmp::Ordering::*;fn main(){let v:Vec<String>=std::env::args().collect();let a:u8=v[1].parse().unwrap();let b:u8=v[2].parse().unwrap();print!("{} is ",a);print!("{}", match a.cmp(&b) {Less=>"less than",Equal=>"equal to",Greater=>"greater than"});print!(" {}",b);}

Pretty printed version:

use std::cmp::Ordering::*;

fn main() {
    let v:Vec<String> = std::env::args().collect();
    let a:u8 = v[1].parse().unwrap();
    let b:u8 = v[2].parse().unwrap();
    print!("{} is ", a);
    print!("{}", match a.cmp(&b) {
        Less => "less than",
        Equal => "equal to",
        Greater => "greater than"
    });
    print!(" {}", b);
}

Answer 26

rs, 105 bytes

(\d+) (\d+)/\1 is (_)^^(\1) (_)^^(\2) \2
 (_+) \1_+/ less than
 (_+) \1 / equal to 
_+ _+/greater than

The trailing and preceding whitespace is very important!

Live demo and all test cases.

Answer 27

Pyth, 57 55 53 bytes

AQjd[G"is"@c"equal to
greater than
less than"b._-GHH)

This basically does:

["less than", "greater than", "equal to"][sign_of(A-B)]

Saved 2 bytes thanks to @AlexA.'s suggestion of using A instead of J and K and another 2 bytes by replacing the whole addition mess with a simpler subtraction.

Live demo and test cases.

55-byte version

AQjd[G"is"@c"less than
greater than
equal to"b+gGHqGHH)

Live demo and test cases.

57-byte version:

jd[JhQ"is"@c"less than
greater than
equal to"b+gJKeQqJKK)

Live demo and test cases.

Answer 28

O, 67 bytes

jJ" is ""greater than""less than""equal to"JjK-.e\1<+{@}d;;' K++++p

Live demo.

Answer 29

SWI-Prolog, 94 bytes

a(A,B):-(((A>B,C=greater;A<B,C=less),D=than);C=equal,D=to),writef("%t is %t %t %t",[A,C,D,B]).

Answer 30

Swift, 105 92 byte

func c(a:Int, b:Int){println("A is",(a==b ?"equal to":(a<b ?"less":"greater")," than"),"B")}

even shorter with Swift 2.0 (103 90 byte)

func c(a:Int, b:Int){print("A is",(a==b ?"equal to":(a<b ?"less":"greater")," than"),"B")}