Exactly the same

Challenge 4 of 16

Two equals signs together ask whether two things are the same. It has to be two: one equals sign is the one that puts a number into a box, and that is a different job altogether.

Set the number the lock is waiting for.

Your code JavaScript

Set the number the lock is waiting for.

Console print() output

0 / 30 frames · 400×400

Target

Yours

Yours over Target — ghosted shapes are in the target but missing from yours

Results

Press Run to check your code

Penalties: none this run

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Lesson The Other Questions

Three topics, and every question has asked the same thing: is this bigger than that. There are five signs altogether, and here they all are.

score > 100 bigger than
score < 100 smaller than
score == 100 exactly the same as
score != 100 not the same as
score >= 100 bigger than, or the same as
score <= 100 smaller than, or the same as

The first two you know. The wide end of the sign faces the bigger side.

The same one is two equals signs, not one. This matters more than it looks. A single equals sign is the one that puts a number into a box — score = 100 changes score. Two equals signs ask a question and change nothing. Writing one where you meant two is the most common mistake there is in this whole business, and nothing goes wrong loudly when you do it.

Not the same is an exclamation mark in front of the equals sign. Read it as "is not". score != 100 is true for 99, for 101, for anything at all except 100.

Then the two with an equals sign underneath. score >= 100 is bigger than or the same as. These only ever differ from > and < at one single number: the one on the line. Everywhere else they agree exactly. So when you are choosing between > and >=, the only question worth asking is what should happen when the value lands exactly on the mark.

All five are in the Reference drawer beside the editor, written out in words, if you ever need reminding which is which.

Words work the same way as numbers with == and !=, and the quote marks matter:

if (name == "ada") {

Without the quote marks the sketch goes looking for a box called ada and does not find one. With them, it is the word itself.

One thing none of these can do yet. A mark of 72 is not a fail and not top of the class, and an if with one else can only tell two things apart. Three bands need something new, and it is next.