How to use exclusive BETWEEN clause in mysql?

Question

I have a php variable. I want check either it lies between values of two columns of any row of mysql table or not. But I do not want match that variable with exact values of table. i.e, exclusive BETWEEN clause. If anyone know answer then please explain with an example. Thank You. Here is my code.

$var = '15:00:00';


//Mysql Table (datatype of columns are TIME)

          first         last
row1      13:00:00      15:00:00
row2      17:00:00      19:00:00

Answer 1

There is no "exclusive BETWEEN" operator in MySQL. The expression:

  a BETWEEN b AND c

is shorthand equivalent to:

  ( a >= b AND a <= c )

We can use different comparison operators if we like:

  ( a > b AND a < c )

If there's a requirement to include BETWEEN to achieve a an equivalent, then we could do

  ( a BETWEEN b AND c AND a NOT IN (b,c) )

but I think the SQL is easier if we avoid using BETWEEN.

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To check whether there are any rows that match a value, we can supply a second copy of the same value into a second condition e.g.

  SELECT 1 AS `matched`
    FROM mytable t
   WHERE t.first < ?
     AND t.last  > ? 
   LIMIT 1