BETWEEN clause versus <= AND >=

Question

Is there a performance difference between using a BETWEEN clause or using <= AND >= comparisons?

i.e. these two queries:

SELECT *  
  FROM table           


        

Answer 1

When in doubt (for Oracle anyway), run an explain plan and you'll see what the optimizer wants to do. This would apply to most questions about "is there a performance difference between ...". Of course there are a lot of other tools also, but explain plan is a good start.