"Between A and B" or "from A to B"

Suppose we are talking about the numbers 1, 2, ... , 10.

When we use the phrase between 1 and 10, do we include the end-points 1 and 10? Is there any difference if we say from 1 to 10 instead?

Solution 1:

Saying “between 1 and 10” is somewhat ambiguous; usually people will say “between 1 and 10 inclusive” or “between 1 and 10 exclusive” to clarify when there is no other context. Both “between…and…” and “from…to…” are usually considered inclusive unless otherwise specified.

Solution 2:

For whatever it is worth, the SQL meaning of WHERE a BETWEEN x AND y means the same as WHERE a >= x AND a <= y, so it is inclusive of the end points.

Most people, most of the time, will interpret 'between 1 and 10' or 'from 1 to 10' as including both end points. In the absence of any indication to the contrary, both the end points will be included.

Mathematicians like half-open ranges that include the start and exclude the end; there are some benefits to that notation.

So, until the world changes its attitude towards the terms, you will have to explicitly qualify 'between 1 and 10 exclusive' to obtain your desired result - and expect to confuse people even with the qualifier, at least in spoken communications. That is, if you ask a kid to choose a number between 1 and 10 exclusive, expect them to choose either 1 or 10 about 20% of the time.

Solution 3:

If you want to exclude, then at least for integers you could say:

• Between 2 and 9 (so that when interpreted in the "inclusive" sense, this contains the range 2--9, inclusive of the endpoints)

• From 1 to 10

This way, even though you cannot change the language, you can change the statement to get the desired effect (without using the word "inclusive")

(Btw., the above solution is aesthetically displeasing due to the implicit asymmetry)