sign-transact-sql.md

title	description	author	ms.author	ms.date	ms.service	ms.subservice	ms.topic	f1_keywords	helpviewer_keywords	dev_langs	monikerRange
SIGN (Transact-SQL)	SIGN (Transact-SQL)	MikeRayMSFT	mikeray	03/03/2017	sql	t-sql	reference	SIGN_TSQL SIGN	- (negative) + (positive sign) zero (0) SIGN function positive values [SQL Server] 0 (zero) negative values	TSQL	>= aps-pdw-2016 || = azuresqldb-current || = azure-sqldw-latest || >= sql-server-2016 || >= sql-server-linux-2017 || = azuresqldb-mi-current||=fabric

SIGN (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDE sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-pdw-fabricse-fabricdw]

Returns the positive (+1), zero (0), or negative (-1) sign of the specified expression.

:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

SIGN ( numeric_expression )  

Arguments

numeric_expression
Is an expression of the exact numeric or approximate numeric data type category, except for the bit data type.

Return Types

Specified expression	Return type
bigint	bigint
int/smallint/tinyint	int
money/smallmoney	money
numeric/decimal	numeric/decimal
Other types	float

Examples

The following example returns the SIGN values of numbers from -1 to 1.

DECLARE @value REAL  
SET @value = -1  
WHILE @value < 2  
   BEGIN  
      SELECT SIGN(@value)  
      SET NOCOUNT ON  
      SELECT @value = @value + 1  
      SET NOCOUNT OFF  
   END  
SET NOCOUNT OFF  
GO  

[!INCLUDEssResult]

(1 row(s) affected)  
  
------------------------   
-1.0                       
  
(1 row(s) affected)  
  
------------------------   
0.0                        
  
(1 row(s) affected)  
  
------------------------   
1.0                        
  
(1 row(s) affected)  

Examples: [!INCLUDEssazuresynapse-md] and [!INCLUDEssPDW]

The following example returns the SIGN values of three numbers.

SELECT SIGN(-125), SIGN(0), SIGN(564);  

[!INCLUDEssResult]

-----  -----  -----  
-1     0      1

See Also

Mathematical Functions (Transact-SQL)