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title: "<= (Less Than or Equal To) (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs"
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# &lt;= (Less Than or Equal To) (Transact-SQL)
[!INCLUDE[tsql-appliesto-ss2008-all_md](../../includes/tsql-appliesto-ss2008-all-md.md)]

  Compares two expressions (a comparison operator). When you compare nonnull expressions, the result is TRUE if the left operand has a value lower than or equal to the right operand; otherwise, the result is FALSE.  
  
 Unlike the = (equality) comparison operator, the result of the >= comparison of two NULL values does not depend on the ANSI_NULLS setting.  
  
 ![Topic link icon](../../database-engine/configure-windows/media/topic-link.gif "Topic link icon") [Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions](../../t-sql/language-elements/transact-sql-syntax-conventions-transact-sql.md)  
  
## Syntax  
  
```  
-- Syntax for SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Parallel Data Warehouse  
  
expression <= expression  
```  
  
## Arguments  
 *expression*  
 Is any valid [expression](../../t-sql/language-elements/expressions-transact-sql.md). Both expressions must have implicitly convertible data types. The conversion depends on the rules of [data type precedence](../../t-sql/data-types/data-type-precedence-transact-sql.md).  
  
## Result Types  
 **Boolean**  
  
## Examples  
  
### A. Using <= in a simple query  
 The following example returns all rows in the `HumanResources.Department` table that have a value in `DepartmentID` that is less than or equal to the value 3.  
  
```  
-- Uses AdventureWorks  
  
SELECT DepartmentID, Name  
FROM HumanResources.Department  
WHERE DepartmentID <= 3  
ORDER BY DepartmentID;  
  
```  
  
 [!INCLUDE[ssResult](../../includes/ssresult-md.md)]  
  
```  
DepartmentID Name  
------------ --------------------------------------------------  
1            Engineering  
2            Tool Design  
3            Sales  
  
(3 row(s) affected)  
  
```  
  
## See Also  
 [Data Types &#40;Transact-SQL&#41;](../../t-sql/data-types/data-types-transact-sql.md)   
 [Operators &#40;Transact-SQL&#41;](../../t-sql/language-elements/operators-transact-sql.md)