Select values between two columns range

Question

I have a table like this:

i1   i2
----------
1    a
1    b
1    c
1    d
2    x
3    y
4    a
4    b
4    c

I want to select the rows between 1 c and 4 a.
The result should be:

1 c
1 d 
2 x 
3 y 
4 a

How can I do this?

Answer 1

I would do this as:

select t.*
from t
where (i1 > 1 or (i1 = 1 and i2 >= 'c')) and
      (i1 < 4 or (i1 = 4 and i2 <= 'a'));