One thing I'll add a minor suggestion to a previous post by Erik...

If you are going to separate EQ first from the GT & LT cases, its a little less efficient because statistically most cases will have to pass through the first comparison (since many more cases are GT and LT). Its more real-time efficient to screen out the more likely cases first.

I understand this is a very minor point in most applications but in the type of real-time work we do, it matters to us. And its not a bad thing to think about when establishing a style of programming.

-Jay C. Box