title: Oracle <> , != , ^= operators
body: <p>I want to know the difference of those operators, mainly their performance difference.</p>
  
  <p>I have had a look at <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5856439/difference-between-and-in-sql">Difference between &lt;&gt; and != in SQL</a>, it has no performance related information.</p>
  
  <p>Then I found this on <a href="http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_not_equal_operator.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">dba-oracle.com</a>,
  it suggests that in 10.2 onwards the performance can be quite different.</p>
  
  <p>I wonder why? does <code>!=</code> always perform better then <code>&lt;&gt;</code>?</p>
  
  <p>NOTE: Our tests, and performance on the live system shows, changing from <code>&lt;&gt;</code> to <code>!=</code> has a big impact on the time the queries return in. I am here to ask WHY this is happening, not whether they are same or not. I know semantically they are, but in reality they are different.</p>