ABS (Transact-SQL)

A mathematical function that returns the absolute (positive) value of the specified numeric expression.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

ABS ( 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

Returns the same type as numeric_expression.

Examples

The following example shows the results of using the ABS function on three different numbers.

SELECT ABS(-1.0), ABS(0.0), ABS(1.0)

Here is the result set.

---- ---- ----
1.0  .0   1.0

The ABS function can produce an overflow error when the absolute value of a number is greater than the largest number that can be represented by the specified data type. For example, the int data type can hold only values that range from 2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. Computing the absolute value for the signed integer 2,147,483,648 causes an overflow error because its absolute value is greater than the positive range for the int data type.

DECLARE @i int;
SET @i = -2147483648;
SELECT ABS(@i);
GO

Here is the error message:

"Msg 8115, Level 16, State 2, Line 3"

"Arithmetic overflow error converting expression to data type int."

See Also

Reference

CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL)
Data Types (Transact-SQL)
Mathematical Functions (Transact-SQL)
Functions (Transact-SQL)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance

Change History

Release	History
17 July 2006	Updated content: Corrected the example that demonstrates an overflow error.