R language has many types of operators to carry out logical, comparative, and mathematical operations. For example, relational operators are used to compare between values.
Not equal to in R
The not equal operator in R is one of the relational operators, and it is the opposite of the equality operator. The not equal to operator written as an exclamation mark followed by an equals sign ( != ).
To check if an object is equal to another object in R, use either equality operator(=) or inequality operator(!=).
The not equal to operator can also be applied for logicals, numerical, and other R objects.
Syntax
!=
Example
19 != 21
TRUE != FALSE
TRUE != TRUE
FALSE != FALSE
FALSE != TRUE
Output
[1] TRUE
[1] TRUE
[1] FALSE
[1] FALSE
[1] TRUE
The first statement is 19 != 21, which is TRUE. So both are different values, and 19 is less than 21.
Furthermore, TRUE is not equal to FALSE. That’s why it returns TRUE.
In the next statement, it returns FALSE because TRUE is equal to TRUE.
Then, it returns FALSE because FALSE is equal to FALSE.
At last, it returns TRUE because FALSE is not equal to TRUE.
Example 2
Let’s define two numerical vectors and compare them using various relational operations.
rv <- 11
ra <- 21
rv < ra
rv > ra
rv <= 12
rv >= 21
ra == 21
ra != rv
Output
[1] TRUE
[1] FALSE
[1] TRUE
[1] FALSE
[1] TRUE
[1] TRUE
Compare two vectors using not equal to operator
To compare the equality of two vectors in R, use either equality or inequality operator.
rv <- c(11, 21)
ra <- c(18, 19)
rv != ra
Output
[1] TRUE TRUE
Combining equal to and not equal to operators in R
The equal to and not equal to operators can be combined with &, meaning “and“, and |, meaning or operator.
19 != 18 | 21 == 21
19 != 18 & 21 != 21
19 == 18 | 21 != 21
Output
[1] TRUE
[1] FALSE
[1] FALSE
The or operator(|) is used to check more than one comparison where any comparison returns TRUE.
The and operator(&) is used to check each comparison returns TRUE; if one comparison returns FALSE, the output becomes FALSE. We have combined the equality and inequality operators with & and | operators.
That’s it for this tutorial.
See also

Krunal Lathiya is an Information Technology Engineer by education and web developer by profession. He has worked with many back-end platforms, including Node.js, PHP, and Python. In addition, Krunal has excellent knowledge of Data Science and Machine Learning, and he is an expert in R Language. Krunal has written many programming blogs, which showcases his vast expertise in this field.