What does <> mean?

Question

What do the less-than and greater-than symbols right next to each other mean?

Does it mean either less than or greater than? In other words, not equal?

I am trying to understand a book that says this:

A = B and B <> A are logically contradictory

Answer 1

Based on the comments, I have decided this probably means ≠ (not equal), as Theo said. As John said, it is also used in SQL, and I found it means not equal in that context, too: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/532435/what-does-mean

I found the original Italian version of the book, which says this:

“A è eguale a B, B non è eguale ad A, è inferiore ad A, sono logicamente contraddittorie”

According to my translation app, it means this:

“A is equal to B, B is not equal to A, is less than A, they are logically contradictory”

My guess is the translator(s) wanted to skip the part about B being less than A, and either they used a nonstandard symbol or the typesetter could not find a “≠”.