Equality Operators

Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Lua journey — lesson 18 of 90.

Equality operators. These operators allow you to compare two values to determine if they are the same or different.

Lua provides two equality operators:

userGuess = 42
secretNumber = 42
isCorrect = userGuess == secretNumber    -- isCorrect is true

playerName = "Alice"
targetName = "Bob"
isDifferent = playerName ~= targetName   -- isDifferent is true

The == operator checks if two values are equal, while the ~= operator checks if they are not equal. Notice that the result of these comparisons is always a boolean value - either true or false.

Challenge

Easy

Compare a user's guess with a secret number to determine if they match. Create a variable called userGuess and assign it the value 42. Create another variable called secretNumber and assign it the value 37. Use the equality operator to check if the guess equals the secret number, storing the result in a variable called isCorrect. Print the boolean result.

Cheat sheet

Lua provides two equality operators for comparing values:

== checks if two values are equal
~= checks if two values are not equal

Both operators return a boolean value (true or false):

userGuess = 42
secretNumber = 42
isCorrect = userGuess == secretNumber    -- isCorrect is true

playerName = "Alice"
targetName = "Bob"
isDifferent = playerName ~= targetName   -- isDifferent is true

Try it yourself

-- Create variables for the guessing game
-- TODO: Write your code here

-- Print the result
print(isCorrect)

Test yourself

This lesson includes a short quiz. Start the lesson to answer it and track your progress.

All lessons in Fundamentals

1Introduction

The Language Hello World!Comments

4Operators 2 Relational & Logic

Equality OperatorsRelational Operators The 'and' Operator The 'or' Operator The 'not' Operator Short-Circuit Evaluation Truthy and Falsy Values Recap - Simple Logic

7Basic Conditional Logic

The if-then Statement The if-then-else Statement The elseif Statement Recap - Treasure Chest

10Tables Part 1: List-Style

What is a Table?Creating a Table Accessing Elements by Index Modifying Elements by Index The Length Operator '#'table.insert()table.remove()Recap - Manage Party Members

13Project: Simple Potion Shop

Project Setup Adding a Potion

Displaying the Inventory

Calculating Total Stock Value

Finding a Specific Potion

Selling a Potion

3Operators 1 Arithmetic & Conc

Arithmetic Operators Modulo Operator Exponentiation Operator String Concatenation Operator Precedence Recap - Simple Calculations

6Project: Character Stats Disp

Welcome Message Declare Character Stats

Display Basic Stats

Add a Boolean Flag

Final Summary

9Functions Basics

Declaring a Function Calling a Function Functions with Parameters Functions with Multiple Params The 'return' Statement Recap - Area Calculator

12Loops Basics

The while Loop The repeat-until Loop The Numeric for Loop for Loop with a Step The 'break' Statement Recap - Countdown

15Final Challenges

Recap - Player Turn Recap - Simple Database Recap - Sum of Even Numbers