Rules for numeric and nonnumeric comparisons are given in the following tables. If either of the operands is a group item, nonnumeric comparison rules apply.
Table 1 summarizes permissible comparisons with nonnumeric operands.
Table 2 summarizes permissible comparisons with numeric operands.
| FIRST OPERAND | SECOND OPERAND | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GR | AL | AN | ANE | NE | FC¹ | NNL | DB | DBE | DA | TI | TS | NL | |
| NONNUMERIC OPERAND | |||||||||||||
| Group (GR) | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | ||
| Alphabetic (AL) | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NLN | |||||
| Alphanumeric (AN) | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NLN | ||
| Alphanumeric Edited (ANE) | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | |||
| Numeric Edited (NE) | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NU | NU | NU | |||
| Figurative Constant (FC¹) | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NL⁴ | |||||||
| Nonnumeric Literal (NNL) | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NLN | ||||
| DBCS items (DB)³ | NN | NN | NLN | ||||||||||
| DBCS-edited items (DBE)³ | NN | NN | |||||||||||
| Date (DA)³ | NN | NN | NN | NU | NN | DT | DT | ||||||
| Time (TI)³ | NN | NN | NN | NU | NN | DT | DT | ||||||
| Timestamp (TS)³ | NN | NN | NN | NU | NN | DT | DT | DT | |||||
| National (NL) | NN | NLN | NLN | NL⁴ | NLN | NLN | NL | ||||||
| NUMERIC OPERAND | |||||||||||||
| Figurative Constant ZERO (ZR) | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | ||||||||
| Numeric Literal (NL) | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NU | NU | NU | |||||
| External Decimal (ED)² | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NN | NU | NU | NU | NN ![]() |
||
| Binary (BI) | NU | NU | NU | ||||||||||
| Arithmetic Expression (AE) | NU | NU | NU | ||||||||||
| Boolean data item or Boolean Literal (BO)³ | |||||||||||||
| Internal Decimal (ID) | NU | NU | NU | ||||||||||
| Internal Floating-Point (IFP)³ | |||||||||||||
| External Floating-Point (EFP)³ | NN³ | NN³ | NN³ | NN³ | NN³ | NN³ | NN³ | ||||||
| Floating-Point Literal (FPL)³ | |||||||||||||
National Decimal (ND) ²³ ![]() |
NN ![]() |
NN ![]() |
NN ![]() |
NN ![]() |
NN ![]() |
NN ![]() |
NN ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
NU ![]() |
NU ![]() |
NU ![]() |
NN ![]() |
| FIRST OPERAND | SECOND OPERAND | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZR | NL | ED, ND ![]() |
BI | AE | BO | ID | IFP³ | EFP³ | FPL³ | |
| NONNUMERIC OPERAND | ||||||||||
| Group (GR) | NN | NN | NN² | NN³ | ||||||
| Alphabetic (AL) | NN | NN | NN² | NN³ | ||||||
| Alphanumeric (AN) | NN | NN | NN² | NN³ | ||||||
| Alphanumeric Edited (ANE) | NN | NN | NN² | NN³ | ||||||
| Numeric Edited (NE) | NN | NN | NN² | NN³ | ||||||
| Figurative Constant (FC¹) | NN² | NN³ | ||||||||
| Nonnumeric Literal (NNL) | NN² | NN³ | ||||||||
| Date (DA) | NU | NU² | NU | NU | NU | |||||
| Time (TI) | NU | NU² | NU | NU | NU | |||||
| Timestamp (TS) | NU | NU² | NU | NU | NU | |||||
| NUMERIC OPERAND | ||||||||||
| Figurative Constant ZERO (ZR) | NU | NU | NU | NU³ | NU | NU³ | NU³ | |||
| Numeric Literal (NL) | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU³ | NU³ | ||||
| External Decimal (ED) | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | |
| Binary (BI) | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | |
| Arithmetic Expression (AE) | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | |
| Boolean data item or Boolean Literal (BO)³ | NU³ | NU³ | ||||||||
| Internal Decimal (ID) | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | |
| Internal Floating-Point (IFP)³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | |
| External Floating-Point (EFP)³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | |
| Floating-Point Literal (FPL)³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | NU³ | ||||
National Decimal (ND) ²³ ![]() |
NU ![]() |
NU ![]() |
NU ![]() |
NU ![]() |
NU ![]() |
![]() |
NU ![]() |
NU³ ![]() |
NU³ ![]() |
NU ![]() |