BETWEEN (Transact-SQL)

Specifies a range to test.

Topic link iconTransact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

test_expression [ NOT ] BETWEEN begin_expression AND end_expression

Arguments

  • test_expression
    Is the expression to test for in the range defined by begin_expressionand end_expression. test_expression must be the same data type as both begin_expression and end_expression.

  • NOT
    Specifies that the result of the predicate be negated.

  • begin_expression
    Is any valid expression. begin_expression must be the same data type as both test_expression and end_expression.

  • end_expression
    Is any valid expression. end_expression must be the same data type as both test_expressionand begin_expression.

  • AND
    Acts as a placeholder that indicates test_expression should be within the range indicated by begin_expression and end_expression.

Result Types

Boolean

Result Value

BETWEEN returns TRUE if the value of test_expression is greater than or equal to the value of begin_expression and less than or equal to the value of end_expression.

NOT BETWEEN returns TRUE if the value of test_expression is less than the value of begin_expression or greater than the value of end_expression.

Remarks

To specify an exclusive range, use the greater than (>) and less than operators (<). If any input to the BETWEEN or NOT BETWEEN predicate is NULL, the result is UNKNOWN.

Examples

A. Using BETWEEN

The following example returns the employees of Adventure Works Cycles that have an hourly pay rate between 27 and 30.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT e.FirstName, e.LastName, ep.Rate
FROM HumanResources.vEmployee e 
JOIN HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory ep 
    ON e.BusinessEntityID = ep.BusinessEntityID
WHERE ep.Rate BETWEEN 27 AND 30
ORDER BY ep.Rate;
GO

Here is the result set.

FirstName LastName Rate

----------- ------------------ ------------------

Paula Barreto de Mattos 27.1394

Karen Berg 27.4038

Ramesh Meyyappan 27.4038

Dan Bacon 27.4038

Janaina Bueno 27.4038

David Bradley 28.7500

Hazem Abolrous 28.8462

Ovidiu Cracium 28.8462

Rob Walters 29.8462

Sheela Word 30.0000

(10 row(s) affected)

B. Using > and < instead of BETWEEN

The following example uses greater than (>) and less than (<) operators and, because these operators are not inclusive, returns nine rows instead of ten that were returned in the previous example.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO

SELECT e.FirstName, e.LastName, ep.Rate
FROM HumanResources.vEmployee e 
JOIN HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory ep 
    ON e.BusinessEntityID = ep.BusinessEntityID
WHERE ep.Rate > 27 AND ep.Rate < 30
ORDER BY ep.Rate;
GO

Here is the result set.

FirstName LastName Rate

--------- ------------------- ---------

Paula Barreto de Mattos 27.1394

Janaina Bueno 27.4038

Dan Bacon 27.4038

Ramesh Meyyappan 27.4038

Karen Berg 27.4038

David Bradley 28.7500

Hazem Abolrous 28.8462

Ovidiu Cracium 28.8462

Rob Walters 29.8462

(9 row(s) affected)

C. Using NOT BETWEEN

The following example finds all rows outside a specified range of 27 through 30.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT e.FirstName, e.LastName, ep.Rate
FROM HumanResources.vEmployee e 
JOIN HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory ep 
    ON e.BusinessEntityID = ep.BusinessEntityID
WHERE ep.Rate NOT BETWEEN 27 AND 30
ORDER BY ep.Rate;
GO

D. Using BETWEEN with datetime values

The following example retrieves rows in which datetime values are between '19971212' and '19980105', inclusive.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT BusinessEntityID, RateChangeDate
FROM HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory
WHERE RateChangeDate BETWEEN '20011212' AND '20020105'

Here is the result set.

BusinessEntityID RateChangeDate

----------- -----------------------

3 2001-12-12 00:00:00.000

4 2002-01-05 00:00:00.000

The query retrieves the expected rows because the date values in the query and the datetime values stored in the RateChangeDate column have been specified without the time part of the date. When the time part is unspecified, it defaults to 12:00 A.M. Note that a row that contains a time part that is after 12:00 A.M. on 1998-0105 would not be returned by this query because it falls outside the range.