Beginner 15 min read

Comparison Operators in Practice

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:

Recall the six comparison operators from Module 4
Recognize that a comparison expression is the foundation of every decision Apex makes
Write a comparison expression suited to a real business rule

Prerequisites: Module 5: "Enums"

A quick recap, with intent

You already know ==, !=, >, <, >=, and <= from Module 4. What's new here isn't the operators — it's the purpose. Every one of these produces a Boolean, and that Boolean is what an if statement (next lesson) actually reacts to.

Integer accountAge = 3;
Boolean isEstablished = accountAge >= 2;

Integer accountAge = 3; — the value being evaluated.
Boolean isEstablished = accountAge >= 2; — the comparison produces a Boolean, true, that's ready to drive a decision.

isEstablished isn't just a value — it's a decision waiting to be acted on.

A real business example: Sales Automation

Decimal dealSize = 75000;
Boolean requiresExecutiveApproval = dealSize > 50000;

Decimal dealSize = 75000; — the deal amount.
Boolean requiresExecutiveApproval = dealSize > 50000; — true, since 75000 is over the 50000 threshold.

This single comparison encodes a real company policy: deals over R50,000 need executive sign-off. The next lesson turns this Boolean into actual branching behavior.

Exercise

Declare Integer daysSinceLastOrder = 45. Declare a Boolean called isAtRiskCustomer that's true if it's been more than 30 days. Debug it.

Show hint

daysSinceLastOrder > 30

Salesforce: ○ Not connected Connect

APEX

Execution Results

Run your code to see the result.

Comparison Operators in Practice Quiz

1. What does every comparison expression ultimately drive in Apex?

A decision — the Boolean result feeds into branching logic like if statements A loop A database query A String

Leaderboard

1. Monde Masiza 1/1

My Notes

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Summary

Module 4 introduced the comparison operators as pure syntax; this lesson bridges into using them for their real purpose — driving decisions — which is exactly what the rest of this module builds on.

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