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Subject:Describing range - use of from/between? From:"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 4 Apr 2002 08:57:15 -0500
Nuzhath Shereen wonders: <<To describe a range of values: When should we use
"from" and when should we use "between"? In both cases, are the start and
end numbers included?>>
"From" most commonly includes the endpoints of the range, which is why
you'll see people write books such as "Microsoft Word from A to Z": it's
clear that they're including all 26 letters, since it would be a weird
situation indeed that excluded A and Z. "Between" literally excludes the
endpoints, as in the idiomatic phrase "between a rock and a hard place".
Both wordings have been used sloppily for long enough that you'll often hear
someone add the word "inclusive" at the end of the range to make it very
clear that the extremes are also included.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."--Goethe
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