Rules / Operators / chaining

!= Skeleton

infix !=

!=
infixchaining 15/27chain-assocRaku++ runs this — 1 of 7 results differdocs.raku.org ↗

The rules for != have not been written yet. Everything below is extracted rather than authored: the official documentation supplies the classification, and the interpreters were asked directly about the rest.

What is established #

Classification #

!= is parsed as an infix at the chaining precedence level, chain-associative.

That is level 15 of 27 on the ladder, counting from the tightest. Operators sharing a level bind equally; grouping among them is decided by associativity alone.

Shares its precedence level with #

==, , , <, <=, , >, >=, , eq, ne, gt, ge, lt, le, before, after, eqv, ===, , =:=, ~~, =~=, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

These all bind equally tightly, so an expression mixing them groups by associativity alone.

What the interpreter said #

Raku++ parses this spelling. Asked to compile:

my $a = 6; my $b = 3; sink($a != $b)

…it got through the parser. On its own that establishes very little: it says nothing about whether the construct executes, let alone whether the result is right. Where the behaviour table below exists, that is the stronger evidence — those expressions were actually run.

Covered upstream #

The official documentation has a section for this construct: docs.raku.org. Until the rules here are written, that is the better reference.

Observed behaviour #

Each expression below was executed by both interpreters when this page was built; the results are recorded, not written. The operands are chosen to cross the boundaries that catch people out: string against number, a list where a scalar was meant, a boolean, an undefined value, and an exact rational.

1 of 7 of these disagree between Raku++ and Rakudo — shown side by side below. A disagreement here is a defect report waiting to be written, not a documented rule.

ExpressionRaku++Rakudo
1 != 2Bool | True
"a" != "b"ERR Cannot convert string to number: base-10 number must begin with valid digits or '.' in 'a'Bool | True
1 != "2"Bool | True
(1, 2) != (3, 4, 5)Bool | True
True != FalseBool | True
Nil != 1Bool | True
1/2 != 1/3Bool | True