Less-than sign
Less-than sign
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Less-than sign

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Less-than sign

The less-than sign is a mathematical symbol that denotes an inequality between two values. The widely adopted form of two equal-length strokes connecting in an acute angle at the left, <, has been found in documents dated as far back as the 1560s. In mathematical writing, the less-than sign is typically placed between two values being compared and signifies that the first number is less than the second number. Examples of typical usage include 1 < 4 and −2 < 0.

Since the development of computer programming languages, the less-than sign and the greater-than sign have been repurposed for a range of uses and operations.

The less-than sign, <, is an original ASCII character (hex 3C, decimal 60).

In BASIC, Lisp-family languages, and C-family languages (including Java and C++), comparison operator < means "less than".

In Coldfusion, operator .lt. means "less than".

In Fortran, operator .LT. means "less than"; later versions allow <.

In Bourne shell (and many other shells), operator -lt means "less than". Less-than sign is used to redirect input from a file. Less-than plus ampersand (<&) is used to redirect from a file descriptor.

The double less-than sign, <<, may be used for an approximation of the much-less-than sign () or of the opening guillemet («). ASCII does not encode either of these signs, though they are both included in Unicode.

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