# Comparators

Lets now focus on the conditional part:

```javascript
if (country === "France") {
    ...
}
```

The conditional part is the variable `country` followed by the three equal signs (`===`). Three equal signs tests if the variable `country` has both the correct value (`France`) and also the correct type (`String`). You can test conditions with double equal signs, too, however a conditional such as `if (x == 5)` would then return true for both `var x = 5;` and `var x = "5";`. Depending on what your program is doing, this could make quite a difference.  It is highly recommended as a best practice that you always compare equality with three equal signs (`===` and `!==`) instead of two (`==` and `!=`).

Other conditional test:

* ```x > a```: is x bigger than a?
* ```x < a```: is x less than a?
* ```x =a```: is x greater than or equal to a?
* ```x != a```: is x not a?
* ```x```: does x exist?


{% exercise %}
Add a condition to change the value of `a` to the number 10 if `x` is bigger than 5.
{% initial %}
var x = 6;
var a = 0;
{% solution %}
var x = 6;
var a = 0;

if (x > 5) {
    a = 10;
}
{% validation %}
assert(a === 10);
{% endexercise %}

##Logical Comparison

In order to avoid the if-else hassle, simple logical comparisons can be utilised.

```js
var topper = (marks > 85) ? "YES" : "NO";
```

In the above example, `?` is a logical operator. The code says that if the value of marks is greater than 85 i.e. `marks > 85` , then `topper = YES` ; otherwise `topper = NO` . Basically, if the comparison condition proves true, the first argument is accessed and if the comparison condition is false , the second argument is accessed.