diff --git a/editors/sed.c b/editors/sed.c
index 3d6d72c68..da06bf485 100644
--- a/editors/sed.c
+++ b/editors/sed.c
@@ -570,7 +570,7 @@ static void do_subst_w_backrefs(const char *line, const char *replace)
 	/* go through the replacement string */
 	for (i = 0; replace[i]; i++) {
 		/* if we find a backreference (\1, \2, etc.) print the backref'ed * text */
-		if (replace[i] == '\\' && replace[i+1]>0 && replace[i+1]<=9) {
+		if (replace[i] == '\\' && replace[i+1]>'0' && replace[i+1]<='9') {
 			int backref=replace[++i]-'0';
 
 			/* print out the text held in regmatch[backref] */