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

There is no performance difference between the two example queries because BETWEEN is simply a shorthand way of expressing an inclusive range comparison. When Oracle parses the BETWEEN condition it will automatically expand out into separate comparison clauses:

ex.

SELECT *  
  FROM table
 WHERE column BETWEEN :lower_bound AND :upper_bound  

...will automatically become:

SELECT *  
  FROM table
 WHERE :lower_bound <= column
   AND :upper_bound >= column

Answer 2

It may be worth considering the SQL standard for this (although this might not correspond to all implementations, even if it should):

Format

<between predicate> ::=
  <row value constructor> [ NOT ] BETWEEN
    <row value constructor> AND <row value constructor>

Syntax Rules

[...]

6) "X BETWEEN Y AND Z" is equivalent to "X>=Y AND X<=Z".

Having said so, there is no difference in behaviour, although for complex X, there may be a difference in parsing time, as mentioned by Benoit here

Found in http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~shadow/sql/sql1992.txt