I've got a condition in a SQL query that seems incredibly inefficient.

Basically, if the month (1-12) of `event_begin` is bigger than the month of `event_end` (e.g. spans December to January) then subtract 12 from the beginning month and add 12 to the end month to allow them to be compared.

Here's the extract for January

SELECT *  
 FROM table  
 WHERE 
 1 >= IF(EXTRACT(MONTH FROM event_begin) > EXTRACT(MONTH FROM event_end), EXTRACT(MONTH FROM event_begin)-12, EXTRACT(MONTH FROM event_begin)) 
 AND 
 1 <= IF(EXTRACT(MONTH FROM event_begin) > EXTRACT(MONTH FROM event_end), EXTRACT(MONTH FROM event_end)+12, EXTRACT(MONTH FROM event_end)) 

There must be a better way. Failing that, does anybody now if the results of

EXTRACT(MONTH FROM event_begin)

Thanks in advance,

Alex