In the following VBScript code I'm trying to compare two numbers and pass the operator from the command line. I substitute the words "greater", "less" and "equal" instead of the symbols to not upset the shell. However the If..Then statement doesn't like me using the variable for the operator. Any ideas. Thanks for the help. Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set colArgs = WScript.Arguments str1stnumber = colArgs.Item(0) str2ndnumber = colArgs.Item(1) strOperator = colArgs.Item(2) If strOperator = "less" Then strOperator = "<" ElseIf strOperator = "greater" Then strOperator = ">" ElseIf strOperator = "equal" Then strOperator = "=" End If If str1stnumber strOperator str2ndnumber Then wscript.echo "it works" End If