Oracle Decode and CASE Sample

create table testabc(
a Number,
b Date
);

insert into testabc(a,b) values(1, TO_DATE('1-MAY-2010/00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY/HH24:MI'));
insert into testabc(a,b) values(1, TO_DATE('2-MAY-2010/00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY/HH24:MI'));
insert into testabc(a,b) values(1, TO_DATE('3-MAY-2010/00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY/HH24:MI'));
insert into testabc(a,b) values(1, TO_DATE('4-MAY-2010/00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY/HH24:MI'));
insert into testabc(a,b) values(1, TO_DATE('5-MAY-2010/00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY/HH24:MI'));
insert into testabc(a,b) values(1, TO_DATE('6-MAY-2010/00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY/HH24:MI'));

select a,b,decode(sign(b - TO_DATE('3-MAY-2010/00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY/HH24:MI')), -1, 'his', 1, 'cur', 'his') as type from testabc;
select a,b,case when b <= TO_DATE('3-MAY-2010/00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY/HH24:MI') then 'his' else 'cur' end type from testabc;

drop table testabc;

In theory, case when will have a better performance.