SIGN Function in Excel: Positive, Negative or Zero?

⏱ 1 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

MathLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. Example 2
  5. Related functions

SIGN returns 1 for positive, −1 for negative and 0 for zero — neat for direction arrows and counting gains vs losses.

Syntax

=SIGN(number)
Argument What it means
number Any number.

Examples

Example 1

=CHOOSE(SIGN(C2-B2)+2, "▼", "–", "▲")

Up/down/flat arrow versus last month.

Example 2

=SUMPRODUCT(--(SIGN(D2:D100)=1))

Count of positive changes.

ABS · IF

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