sign-transact-sql.md

title	SIGN (Transact-SQL)
description	SIGN (Transact-SQL)
author	MikeRayMSFT
ms.author	mikeray
ms.date	03/03/2017
ms.service	sql
ms.subservice	t-sql
ms.topic	reference
ms.custom	ignite-2025
f1_keywords	SIGN_TSQL SIGN
helpviewer_keywords	- (negative) + (positive sign) zero (0) SIGN function positive values [SQL Server] 0 (zero) negative values
dev_langs	TSQL
monikerRange	>=aps-pdw-2016 || =azuresqldb-current || =azure-sqldw-latest || >=sql-server-2016 || >=sql-server-linux-2017 || =azuresqldb-mi-current || =fabric || =fabric-sqldb

SIGN (Transact-SQL)

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

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)