Excel SIGN Function — How to Use It (with 3 Examples)

Contents

What does SIGN do?

SIGN looks at a number and returns 1 if it is positive, -1 if it is negative, and 0 if it is exactly zero.

It is a clean way to check the direction of a value (gain vs loss, over vs under) without writing a longer IF statement.

=SIGN(number)

Argument	Description
number required	The number to test.

Example 1

Positive number

=SIGN(45)

Returns 1.

Example 2

Negative number

=SIGN(-12)

Returns -1.

Example 3

Flag direction of change

=IF(SIGN(B2-C2)=1,"Increase","Decrease")

Compares two values and labels the direction of change using SIGN instead of a longer comparison.

⚠️ Forgetting SIGN(0) is 0, not 1 or -1

Zero is its own case — code that only checks for 1 or -1 will silently miss it.

Is SIGN the same as just checking >0?

SIGN gives you a usable number (1, -1, 0) you can multiply or compare directly, rather than just a TRUE/FALSE.

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