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title: "ABS (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs" ms.custom: "" ms.date: "07/24/2017" ms.prod: "sql" ms.prod_service: "database-engine, sql-database, sql-data-warehouse, pdw" ms.service: "" ms.component: "t-sql|functions" ms.reviewer: "" ms.suite: "sql" ms.technology:

  • "database-engine" ms.tgt_pltfrm: "" ms.topic: "language-reference" f1_keywords:
  • "ABS_TSQL"
  • "ABS" dev_langs:
  • "TSQL" helpviewer_keywords:
  • "values [SQL Server], positive"
  • "values [SQL Server], absolute"
  • "ABS function"
  • "absolute positive value" ms.assetid: e2ea7a6d-3e2f-472c-afbc-437d3b835c03 caps.latest.revision: 44 author: "edmacauley" ms.author: "edmaca" manager: "craigg" ms.workload: "Active" monikerRange: ">= aps-pdw-2016 || = azuresqldb-current || = azure-sqldw-latest || >= sql-server-2016 || = sqlallproducts-allversions"

ABS (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2008-all-md]

A mathematical function that returns the absolute (positive) value of the specified numeric expression. (ABS changes negative values to positive values. ABS has no effect on zero or positive values.)

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

ABS ( numeric_expression )

Arguments

numeric_expression
An expression of the exact numeric or approximate numeric data type category.

Return Types

Returns the same type as numeric_expression.

Examples

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

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

[!INCLUDEssResult]

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

The ABS function can produce an overflow error when the absolute value of a number exceeds the largest number that the specified data type can represent. For example, the int data type has a value range from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. Computing the absolute value for the signed integer -2,147,483,648 will cause an overflow error because its absolute value exceeds the positive range limit for the int data type.

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

Returns this error message:

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

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

See also

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