Not equal sign ≠

The sign is an equals sign with a slash through it. It states that two expressions have different values:

• 5 + 2 ≠ 8
• x ≠ 0, a common condition before dividing by x
• a ≠ b ≠ c is ambiguous, because it doesn’t say that a ≠ c. Write “a, b and c are distinct” instead.
• A ≠ ∅ says that set A is not empty.

Related signs: ≈ means approximately equal, ≡ means identical or congruent in modular arithmetic, and ≢ means not identical. In LaTeX, \neq or \ne gives ≠, and \not\equiv gives ≢.

Where	Not equal	Example
Python, C, Java, PHP	!=	if x != 0:
JavaScript	!== (strict) or !=	a !== b
SQL	<> (standard) or !=	WHERE status <> 'closed'
Excel, Google Sheets	<>	=IF(A1<>B1, "diff", "same")
Visual Basic	<>	If a <> b Then
Lua	~=	if a ~= b then

In JavaScript, prefer !==. The loose != converts types first, so 0 != "" is false. Some coding fonts draw != as a single ≠ through ligatures, but the file still contains two characters, and the code needs them.

• Word: in an equation (Alt+=), type \ne and press space.
• Google Docs: Insert > Special characters and search “not equal,” or Insert > Equation and type \neq followed by a space.
• Mac: besides the Option shortcut, the Character Viewer (Control+Command+Space) lists related math signs.
• Excel filters and conditional formatting: the built-in “does not equal” option does the same job as <> without a formula.
• Phones: neither iPhone nor Android has a default ≠ key. Copy it here or create a text replacement.

In math content, use the real ≠ rather than a stand-in like =/=, which screen readers announce as three separate symbols.