What term is used for an operator that compares values?

The term used for an operator that compares values is commonly referred to as "Equality." Equality operators are specifically designed to compare two values and determine if they are equivalent, returning a Boolean outcome (true or false). For instance, in programming, the equality operator "==" checks whether the two operands on either side are equal in value.

This comparison functionality is foundational in programming, enabling control structures like conditional statements to execute different code paths based on whether the conditions being evaluated are met. For instance, if one condition equals another, a certain block of code may run, while if it is not equal, an alternate code block would execute.

Understanding equality operators is crucial for decision-making in computer science, as they allow developers to implement logic based on comparisons. Other operator categories, like conditional, logical, and arithmetic, serve different purposes in code but do not specifically focus on comparing values in the same manner that equality does.