Comparison Functions

Comparison functions are programming constructs that compare two values and return a result indicating their relationship, such as equality, inequality, or ordering. They are fundamental to operations like sorting, searching, and conditional logic in software development. These functions typically return a boolean (true/false) for equality checks or an integer (negative, zero, positive) for ordering comparisons.

Also known as: Comparator Functions, Compare Functions, Comparison Operators, Relational Operators, Cmp

Why learn Comparison Functions?

Developers should learn comparison functions to implement essential algorithms like sorting (e.g., in quicksort or mergesort) and searching (e.g., binary search), as well as for data validation and decision-making in code. They are crucial in languages and frameworks that rely on custom ordering, such as when defining sort orders for objects in Java's Comparable interface or in JavaScript's array sort method with a comparator function.

Learning Resources

• docs: MDN Web Docs: Array.prototype.sort()
• docs: Java Documentation: Comparable Interface
• tutorial: GeeksforGeeks: Comparator in Java
• docs: Python Documentation: Sorting HOW TO
• course: Khan Academy: Sorting Algorithms