Operator < (Less Than)

Compares an expression less than another expression

Syntax
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As Byte, ByRef rhs As Byte ) As Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As UByte, ByRef rhs As UByte ) As Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As Short, ByRef rhs As Short ) As Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As UShort, ByRef rhs As UShort ) As 
   Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As Integer, ByRef rhs As Integer ) As 
   Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As UInteger, ByRef rhs As UInteger ) As 
   Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As LongInt, ByRef rhs As LongInt ) As 
   Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As ULongInt, ByRef rhs As ULongInt ) As 
   Integer

   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As Single, ByRef rhs As Single ) As 
   Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As Double, ByRef rhs As Double ) As 
   Integer

   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As String, ByRef rhs As String ) As 
   Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As ZString, ByRef rhs As ZString ) As 
   Integer
   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As WString, ByRef rhs As WString ) As 
   Integer

   Declare Operator < ( ByRef lhs As T, ByRef rhs As T ) As Integer

Usage
   result = lhs < rhs

Parameters
   lhs
      The left-hand side expression to compare to.
   rhs
      The right-hand side expression to compare to.
   T
      Any pointer type.

Return Value
   Returns negative one (-1) if the left-hand side expression is less than 
   the right-hand side expression, or zero (0) if greater than or equal.

Description
   Operator < (Less than) is a binary operator that compares two 
   expressions for inequality and returns the result - a boolean value in 
   the form of an Integer: negative one (-1) for true and zero (0) for 
   false. The arguments are not modified in any way.

   When this operator is applied to string type data, then a 
   lexicographic/alphabetic order comparison is performed (ordered from the 
   numeric ASCII values of the characters of the two strings).

   This operator can be overloaded to accept user-defined types as well.

Example

   Const size As Integer = 4
   Dim array(size - 1) As Integer = { 1, 2, 3, 4 }

   Dim index As Integer = 0
   While (index < size)
      Print array(index)
      index += 1
   Wend

   Operator >= (Greater than or equal) is complement to Operator < (Less 
   than), and is functionally identical when combined with Operator Not 
   (Bit-wise Complement).

      If (69 < 420) Then Print "(69 < 420) is true."
      If Not (69 >= 420) Then Print "not (69 >= 420) is true."

Dialect Differences
   * In the -lang qb dialect, this operator cannot be overloaded.

Differences from QB
   * none

See also
   * Operator >= (Greater than or equal)

