It's a matter of semantics, but this does not contradict the parent. Under-the-hood in assembly, this is split into two operations: a comparison (cmp), and then a second operation that sets 'b'. This could be done with a branch (jl), a conditional move (cmovl), or a conditional set (setl). You can see the various solutions used by different compilers with mattgodbolt's GCC explorer: http://gcc.godbolt.org/#%7B%22version%22%3A3%2C%22filterAsm%...