EXPRESSIONS

Type Comparison Operator

instanceof

15.19.2

15.19.1   Numerical Comparison Operators

<

,

<=

,

>

, and

>=

The type of each of the operands of a numerical comparison operator must be a

primitive numeric type, or a compile time error occurs. Binary numeric promotion

is performed on the operands ( 5.6.2). If the promoted type of the operands is

int

or

long

, then signed integer comparison is performed; if this promoted type is

float

 or

double

, then floating point comparison is performed.

The result of a floating point comparison, as determined by the specification

of the IEEE 754 standard, is:

If either operand is NaN, then the result is

false

.

All values other than NaN are ordered, with negative infinity less than all

finite values, and positive infinity greater than all finite values.

Positive zero and negative zero are considered equal. Therefore,

 0.0<0.0

 is

false

, for example, but

 0.0<=0.0

 is

true

. (Note, however, that the meth 

ods

Math.min

 ( 20.11.27,  20.11.28) and

Math.max

 ( 20.11.31,  20.11.32)

treat negative zero as being strictly smaller than positive zero.)

Subject to these considerations for floating point numbers, the following rules

then hold for integer operands or for floating point operands other than NaN:

The value produced by the

<

 operator is

true

 if the value of the left hand

operand is less than the value of the right hand operand, and otherwise is

false

.

The value produced by the

<=

 operator is

true

 if the value of the left hand

operand is less than or equal to the value of the right hand operand, and other 

wise is

false

.

The value produced by the

>

 operator is

true

 if the value of the left hand

operand is greater than the value of the right hand operand, and otherwise is

false

.

The value produced by the

>=

 operator is

true

 if the value of the left hand

operand is greater than or equal to the value of the right hand operand, and

otherwise is

false

.

15.19.2   Type Comparison Operator

instanceof

The type of a

RelationalExpression

 operand of the

instanceof

 operator must be

a reference type or the null type; otherwise, a compile time error occurs. The

Ref 

erenceType

 mentioned after the

instanceof

 operator must denote a reference

type; otherwise, a compile time error occurs.

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