Comparison conditions

The syntax for comparison conditions is as follows:

expression compare expression

where compare is a comparison operator. Table 2-4 lists the comparison operators available in Sybase IQ.

**Table 2-4: Comparison operators available in Sybase IQ**
Operator	Description
=	Equal to
>	Greater than
<	Less than
>=	Greater than or equal to
<=	Less than or equal to
!=	Not equal to
<>	Not equal to
!>	Not greater than
!<	Not less than

Example

For example, the following query retrieves the names and birth years of the oldest employees:

SELECT Surname, BirthDate 
FROM Employees 
WHERE Surname <= ALL (SELECT MIN(BirthDate) FROM Employees);

The subqueries that provide comparison values for quantified comparison predicates, as in the preceding example, might retrieve multiple rows but can only have one column.

All string comparisons are:

Case-sensitive if the database was created as case respect (the default)
Case-insensitive if the database was created as case ignore

See the “Usage” section of the CREATE DATABASE statement in Reference: Statements and Options for more details on the results of comparisons in a case-insensitive database.

Compatibility

Trailing blanks Any trailing blanks in character data are ignored for comparison purposes by Adaptive Server Enterprise. The behavior of Sybase IQ when comparing strings is controlled by the Ignore Trailing Blanks in String Comparisons database creation option.

Case sensitivity By default, Sybase IQ databases, like Adaptive Server Enterprise databases, are created as case-sensitive. Comparisons are carried out with the same attention to case as the database they are operating on. You can control the case sensitivity of Sybase IQ databases when creating the database.