# if(... EQUAL 0) syntax
**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/if-equal-0-syntax/3886
**Category:** Code
**Created:** [August 6, 2021, 8:30am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/if-equal-0-syntax/3886 "2021-08-06T08:30:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@scivision](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/scivision)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 8:30am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/if-equal-0-syntax/3886/1 "2021-08-06T08:30:23Z")
I believed correct syntax for the if(EQUAL) would be like
```auto
try_run(runcode buildOK ...)
if(runcode EQUAL 0)
endif()
```
That usually works, but I ran into a CentOS 8 system where even though `message(STATUS ${runcode})` showed 0, the `if(runcode EQUAL 0)` clause failed to be true. The system locale is English US. The statement does work on other systems.
On the problem system, the try\_run() code does run correctly and gives expected RUN\_OUTPUT\_VARIABLE value as per my code (say hello.c).
To work around this I just simply ignored the runcode, and put a unique string into the run output variable so that I knew the program ran correctly.
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### Author:  [@craig.scott](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/craig.scott)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/if-equal-0-syntax/3886/2 "2021-08-06T22:09:39Z")
Bit of a long shot, but has something erroneously defined a variable named “0”? It’s a crazy quirk, but it actually is possible to define a variable whose name consists only of digits (but please never do this deliberately!). I seem to recall a user hitting something like this a while back where an error in their logic was resulting in creating variables named “1”, “2”, etc.