View source for Greater-than sign

{{Short description|Mathematical symbol for "greater than"}}
{{redirect|More than|the insurance company|More Than}}
{{for | the use of the "&gt;" sign as punctuation | Bracket#Angle brackets}}
{{Infobox symbol
|mark=>
|name=Greater-than sign
|unicode = {{unichar|003E|Greater-than sign|html=}}
|see also= {{unichar|2265|Greater-than or equal to|nlink=Inequality (mathematics)}}<br />
{{Unichar|2A7E|GREATER-THAN OR SLANTED EQUAL TO}}<br />
{{unichar|226F|NOT GREATER-THAN}}<br />{{unichar|226B|Much greater-than}} 
|different from = {{unichar|232A|RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE BRACKET}}
}}
The '''greater-than sign''' is a mathematical symbol that denotes an [[Inequality (mathematics)|inequality]] between two values. The widely adopted form of two equal-length strokes connecting in an acute angle at the right, '''{{char|>}}''', has been found in documents dated as far back as 1631.<ref name="Smith" /> In mathematical writing, the greater-than sign is typically placed between two values being compared and signifies that the first number is greater than the second number. Examples of typical usage include {{math|1.5 > 1}} and {{math|1 > −2}}. The less-than sign and greater-than sign always "point" to the smaller number.  Since the development of computer [[programming language]]s, the greater-than sign and the [[less-than sign]] have been repurposed for a range of uses and operations.

==History==
The earliest known use of the symbols {{char|<}} and {{char|>}} is found in {{lang|la|Artis Analyticae Praxis ad Aequationes Algebraicas Resolvendas}} (''The Analytical Arts Applied to Solving Algebraic Equations'') by [[Thomas Harriot]], published posthumously in 1631.<ref name="Smith" /> The text states "{{lang|la|Signum majoritatis ut}} a&nbsp;>&nbsp;b {{lang|la|significet}} a {{lang|la|majorem quam}} b (The sign of majority a > b indicates that a is greater than b)" and "{{lang|la|Signum minoritatis ut}} a < b {{lang|la|significet}} a {{lang|la|minorem quam}} b (The sign of minority a < b indicates that a is less than b)."

According to historian Art Johnson, while Harriot was surveying North America, he saw a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] with a symbol that resembled the greater-than sign,<ref name="Smith">{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Charles L. |date=1964 |title=On the origin of ">" and "<" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27957118 |journal=The Mathematics Teacher |volume=57 |issue=7 |pages=479–481 |doi=10.5951/MT.57.7.0479 |jstor=27957118 |issn=0025-5769 |access-date=2022-06-05 |archive-date=2022-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605165211/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27957118 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> in both backwards and forwards forms.<ref name=ArtJohnson> Johnson, Art. "History of Mathematical Symbols". Classic Math: History Topics for the Classroom. Dale Seymour Publications, 1994.</ref> Johnson says it is likely Harriot developed the two symbols from this symbol.<ref name=ArtJohnson/>

==Usage in text markup==

===Angle brackets===
The greater-than sign is sometimes used for an approximation of the  [[Bracket#Angle brackets|closing angle bracket]], {{char|⟩}}. The proper Unicode character is {{unichar|232A|RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE BRACKET|html=}}. ASCII does not have angular brackets.

===HTML===	
In [[HTML]] (and [[SGML]] and [[XML]]), the greater-than sign is used at the end of tags. The greater-than sign may be included with {{code|&gt;}}, while {{code|&ge;}} produces the greater-than or equal to sign.

===E-mail and Markdown===
{{See also|Usenet quoting|Posting style|Markdown|Diple (textual symbol)}}
In some early [[e-mail]] systems, the greater-than sign was used to denote [[quotation]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email |first=Kaitlin Duck |last=Sherwood |date=22 October 1998 |url=http://www.webfoot.com/advise/bigglob.html |access-date=2021-08-31 |website=www.webfoot.com |archive-date=2021-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014220014/http://www.webfoot.com/advise/bigglob.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
The sign is also used to denote quotations in [[Markdown]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Markdown Syntax Cheatsheet|url=https://lannadigital.com/website/markdown/|access-date=2021-08-31|website=Lanna Digital|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-08-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831052436/https://lannadigital.com/website/markdown/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Usage in programming==
The 'greater-than sign' {{char|>}} is encoded in [[ASCII]] as character hex 3E, decimal 62. The [[Unicode]] [[code point]] is {{unichar|003E|GREATER-THAN SIGN}}, inherited from ASCII. 

For use with [[HTML]], the mnemonics {{code|&gt;}} or {{code|&GT;}} may also be used.

===Programming language===
[[BASIC]] and [[C (programming language)|C]]-family languages (including [[Java (programming language)|Java]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/opsummary.html |title=Summary of Operators |publisher=[[Oracle Corporation]] |access-date=5 February 2020 |archive-date=16 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416205524/https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/opsummary.html |url-status=live }}</ref>  and [[C++]]) use the [[Operator (computer programming)|comparison operator]] {{code|>}} to mean "greater than". In [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]]-family languages, {{code|>}}  is a function used to mean "greater than".
In [[Coldfusion]] and [[Fortran]], operator {{code|.GT.}} means "greater than".

===Double greater-than sign===
{{distinguish|Guillemet}}
{{char|>>}} is used for an approximation of the ''[[much-greater-than sign]]'' {{char|≫}}. ASCII does not have the much greater-than sign.

The double greater-than sign is also used for an approximation of the closing [[guillemet]], {{char|»}}.

In [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[C (programming language)|C]], and [[C++]], the operator {{code|>>}} is the [[right-shift operator]]. In C++ it is also used to get input from a [[Stream (computing)|stream]], similar to the C functions {{code|getchar}} and {{code|fgets}}.

In [[Haskell (programming language)|Haskell]], the {{code|>>}} function is a monadic operator. It is used for sequentially composing two actions, discarding any value produced by the first. In that regard, it is like the statement sequencing operator in imperative languages, such as the semicolon in C.

In [[XPath]] the {{code|>>}} operator returns true if the left operand follows the right operand in document order; otherwise it returns false.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath20/#id-node-comparisons|title=XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0 (Second Edition)|date=14 December 2010|website=www.w3.org|publisher=W3C|access-date=29 October 2019|archive-date=7 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221007124416/https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath20/#id-node-comparisons|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Triple greater-than sign===
{{char|>>>}} is the unsigned-right-shift operator in [[JavaScript]]. Three greater-than signs form the distinctive prompt of the firmware console in [[MicroVAX]], [[VAXstation]], and [[DEC Alpha]] computers (known as the [[System Reference Manual|SRM console]] in the latter). This is also the default prompt of the [[Python (programming language)|Python]] interactive shell, often seen for code examples that can be executed interactively in the interpreter:
<syntaxhighlight lang="pycon" highlight="1">
$ python
Python 3.9.2 (default, Feb 20 2021, 18:40:11) 
[GCC 10.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> print("Hello World")
Hello World
>>> 
</syntaxhighlight>

===Greater-than sign with equals sign===
<span style="font-variant-ligatures: none">{{code|1=>=}}</span> is sometimes used for an approximation of the [[greater than or equal to]] sign, {{char|≥}} which was not included in the ASCII repertoire. The sign is, however, provided in [[Unicode]], as {{unichar|2265|Greater-than or equal to|html=}}.

In [[BASIC]], [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]]-family languages, [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]] and [[C (programming language)|C]]-family languages (including [[Java (programming language)|Java]] and [[C++]]) the operator <span style="font-variant-ligatures: none">{{code|1=>=}}</span> means "greater than or equal to". In [[Sinclair BASIC]] it is encoded as a single-byte code point token.

In [[Fortran]], the operator {{code|.GE.}} means "greater than or equal to".

In [[Bourne shell]] and [[Windows PowerShell]], the operator {{code|-ge}} means "greater than or equal to".

===Hyphen-minus with greater-than sign===
<span style="font-variant-ligatures: none">{{code|->}}</span> is used in some programming languages (for example [[F Sharp (programming language)|F#]]) to create an arrow. Arrows like these could also be used in text where other [[Arrow (symbol)|arrow symbols]] are unavailable.  In the [[R (programming language)|R programming language]], this can be used as the right assignment operator. In the [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]], and [[PHP]], this is used as a member access operator. In [[Swift (programming language)|Swift]] and [[Python (programming language)|Python]], it is used to indicate the return value type when defining a [[Function (Programming)|function]] (i.e., <span style="font-variant-ligatures: none">{{code|func foo() -> MyClass {...}|swift}}</span>).

===Shell scripts===
In [[Bourne shell]] (and many other shells), greater-than sign is used to [[Redirection (Unix)|redirect]] output to a file. Greater-than plus ampersand ({{code|>&}}) is used to redirect to a [[file descriptor]].

===Spaceship operator===
 
Greater-than sign is used in the '[[spaceship operator]]', <span style="font-variant-ligatures: none">{{code|1=<=>}}</span>.

===ECMAScript and C#===
In [[ECMAScript]] and [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]], the greater-than sign is used in lambda function expressions.

In ECMAScript:
<syntaxhighlight lang="javascript">
const square = x => x * x;
console.log(square(5)); // 25
</syntaxhighlight>

In C#:
<syntaxhighlight lang="c#">
Func<int, int> square = x => x * x;
Console.WriteLine(square(5)); // 25
</syntaxhighlight>

===PHP===
In [[PHP]], the greater-than sign is used in conjunction with the less-than sign as a not equal to operator. It is the same as the <code>!=</code> operator.

<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
$x = 5;
$y = 3;
$z = 5;

echo $x <> $y; // true
echo $x <> $z; // false
</syntaxhighlight>

==Unicode==
[[Unicode]] provides various greater than symbols:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greater than symbol |url=https://greaterthansymbol.org/ |access-date=2023-06-06 |archive-date=2023-05-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230518110900/https://greaterthansymbol.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref>  (use ⇕ controls to change sort order temporarily)
{| class="wikitable sortable" style=text-align:center;
! Symbol !! Code Point !! Unicode name
|-
| > || U+003E || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Sign}} }}
|-
| ≥ || U+2265 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Or Equal To}} }}
|-
| ≧ || U+2267 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Over Equal To}} }}
|-
| ≩ || U+2269 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than But Not Equal To}} }}
|-
| ≫ || U+226B || {{left|{{sc|Much Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ≯ || U+226F || {{left|{{sc|Not Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ≱ || U+2271 || {{left|{{sc|Neither Greater-Than Nor Equal To}} }}
|-
| ≳ || U+2273 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Or Equivalent To}} }}
|-
| ≵ || U+2275 || {{left|{{sc|Neither Greater-Than Nor Equivalent To}} }}
|-
| ⋗ || U+22D7 || {{left|{{sc||Greater-Than With Dot}} }}
|-
| ⋙ || U+22D9 || {{left|{{sc|Very Much Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ⋝ || U+22DD || {{left|{{sc|Equal To Or Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ⋧ || U+22E7 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than But Not Equivalent To}} }}
|-
| ⍄ || U+2344 || {{left|{{sc|Apl Functional Symbol Quad Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ⍩ || U+2369 || {{left|{{sc|Apl Functional Symbol Greater-Than Diaeresis}} }}
|-
| ⦕ || U+2995 || {{left|{{sc|Double Left Arc Greater-Than Bracket}} }}
|-
| ⥸ || U+2978 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Above Rightwards Arrow}} }}
|-
| ⧁ || U+29C1 || {{left|{{sc| Circled Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ⩺ || U+2A7A || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than With Circle Inside}} }}
|-
| ⪚ || U+2A9A || {{left|{{sc|Double-Line Equal To Or Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ⪜ || U+2A9C || {{left|{{sc|Double-Line Slanted Equal To Or Greater-Than}} }}
|- 
| ⩾ || U+2A7E || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Or Slanted Equal To}} }}
|-
| ⪀ || U+2A80 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Or Slanted Equal To With Dot Inside}} }}
|-
| ⪂ || U+2A82 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Or Slanted Equal To With Dot Above}} }}
|-
| ⪄ || U+2A84 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Or Slanted Equal To With Dot Above Left}} }}
|-
| ⪆ || U+2A86 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Or Approximate}} }}
|-
| ⪎ || U+2A8E || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Above Similar Or Equal}} }}
|-
| ⪊ || U+2A8A || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than And Not Approximate}} }}
|-
| ⪈ || U+2A88 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than And Single-Line Not Equal To}} }}
|-
| ⪢ || U+2AA2 || {{left|{{sc|Double Nested Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ⪧ || U+2AA7 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Closed By Curve}} }}
|-
| ⪩ || U+2AA9 || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than Closed By Curve Above Slanted Equal}} }}
|-
| ⫺ || U+2AFA || {{left|{{sc|Double-Line Slanted Greater-Than Or Equal To}} }}
|-
| ⩼ || U+2A7C || {{left|{{sc|Greater-Than With Question Mark Above}} }}

|-
| ⦔ || U+2994 || {{left|{{sc|Right Arc Greater-Than Bracket}} }}
|-
| ⪖ || U+2A96 || {{left|{{sc|Slanted Equal To Or Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ⪘ || U+2A98 || {{left|{{sc|Slanted Equal To Or Greater-Than With Dot Inside}} }}
|-
| ⪞ || U+2A9E || {{left|{{sc|Similar Or Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ⪠ || U+2AA0 || {{left|{{sc|Similar Above Greater-Than Above Equals Sign}} }}
|-
| ⫸ || U+2AF8 || {{left|{{sc|Triple Nested Greater-Than}} }}
|-
| ﹥ || U+FE65 || {{left|{{sc|Small greater than sign}} }}
|-
| ＞ || U+FF1E || {{left|{{sc|Fullwidth greater than Sign}} }}
|}

==See also==
*[[Inequality (mathematics)]]
*[[Less-than sign]]
*[[Relational operator]]
*[[Mathematical operators and symbols in Unicode]]
*[[Guillemet]]
*[[Material conditional]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Typographical symbols]]
[[Category:Mathematical symbols]]
[[Category:Inequalities (mathematics)]]