Abstract: Formulae expressing explicitly the q-difference derivatives and the moments of the polynomials P n (x ; q)∈ T (T ={P n (x ; q)∈ Askey–Wilson polynomials: Al-Salam-Carlitz I, Discrete q-Hermite I, Little (Big) q-Laguerre, Little (Big) q-Jacobi, q-Hahn, Alternative q-Charlier) of any degree and for any order in terms of P i (x ; q) themselves are proved. We will also provide two other interesting formulae to expand the coefficients of general-order q-difference derivatives , and for the moments , of an arbitrary function f(x) in terms of its original expansion coefficients. We used the underlying formulae to relate the coefficients of two different polynomial systems of basic hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials, belonging to the Askey–Wilson polynomials and P n (x ; q)∈ T. These formulae are useful in setting up the algebraic systems in the unknown coefficients, when applying the spectral methods for solving q-difference equations of any order. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]