How does the < work? By accident, in my code, I compared an integer with a list, and it gave me a boolean value as response instead of error. iex(1)> integer = 1 1 iex(2)> list = [1] [1] iex(3) integer < list true So how does the operator work here?

</2 and friends work by comparing “terms” as explained in the erlang manual: Expressions — Erlang System Documentation v29.0.2

It is also explained on the Elixir guides: https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/basic-operators.html For those who don’t want to open another site: The reason we can compare different data types is pragmatism. Sorting algorithms don’t need to worry about different data types in order to sort. …

PS.: just expressing my opinion on the matter, I think this is a really nice way to handle comparison between different data types. I mean, a lot better than what JS does, trying to discover what the user means by comparing different types. And that also allows some powerful stuff, like using any ty…

Basic < Operator working between integer and list

Questions & Help Questions

NobbZ October 11, 2019, 6:29am 2

</2 and friends work by comparing “terms” as explained in the erlang manual: