SIGN

Purpose

SIGN() returns the sign of the given number. The sign can be 1, -1, or 0.

Syntax

SIGN(numeric_expression)

Parameters

numeric_expression is of a numeric data type, such as NUMBER, FLOAT, BINARY_FLOAT, or BINARY_DOUBLE, or any data type that can be implicitly converted to a numeric data type.

Return type

The return type is NUMBER.

• If numeric_expression > 0, the function returns 1.

• If numeric_expression < 0, the function returns -1.

• If numeric_expression = 0, the function returns 0.

Examples

The following example returns the signs of 2, -2, 0, and 3+3.

obclient> SELECT SIGN(2),SIGN(-2),SIGN(0),SIGN(3+3) FROM DUAL;
+---------+----------+---------+-----------+
| SIGN(2) | SIGN(-2) | SIGN(0) | SIGN(3+3) |
+---------+----------+---------+-----------+
|       1 |       -1 |       0 |         1 |
+---------+----------+---------+-----------+
1 row in set