Developing Apama Applications > Apama EPL Reference > Types > Comparable types
Comparable types
The operators <, >, <=, >=, =, or != can be used to compare two values that are both the same type and that type can only be one of the following types:
*decimal
*float
*integer
*string
The following types are considered to be comparable types because you can use each one in a sequence that you plan to sort:
*boolean
*decimal
*float
*integer
*string
*context
*dictionary if it contains items that are a comparable type
*event if it contains only comparable types
*location
*sequence if it contains items that are a comparable type
The correlator cannot compare the following types of items:
*action
*chunk
*dictionary if it contains items that are an incomparable type
*event if it contains at least one incomparable type
*listener
*sequence if it contains items that are an incomparable type
*stream
*Potentially cyclic types
For details about how the correlator compares items of a particular type, see the topic about that type.
In EPL code, you must use a comparable type in the following places:
*As the key for a dictionary. The type of the items in the dictionary does not need to be comparable.
*In a sequence if you want to call the indexOf() or sort() method on that sequence.
*As a key in the following stream query clauses:
*Equi-join
*group by
*partition by
*with unique
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