ABS function in SQL

Case Study:

Get only positive Values

Practice Table:

create table plch_employees (

   id    integer primary key

, name  varchar2(40)

, gender char(1)         

)

/

insert into plch_employees values (-100, 'Mr. John Doe','M')

/

insert into plch_employees values (-200, 'Mrs. Jane Doe','F')

/

insert into plch_employees values (300, 'Ms. Julie Doe','F')

/

insert into plch_employees values (-400, 'Mr. Jack Doe','M')

/

insert into plch_employees values (500, 'Dr. James Doe','M')

/

insert into plch_employees values (600, 'Jonathan Doe','M')

/

insert into plch_employees values (700, 'Jeff Jr. Doe','M')

/

commit

/

ABS

Syntax

Purpose

The ABS function returns the absolute value of a number, which will always be zero or a positive number.

This function takes as an argument any numeric data type or any nonnumeric data

type that can be implicitly converted to a numeric data type.

Examples

The following example returns the absolute value of -15:

SELECT ABS (-15) "Absolute"

FROM DUAL;

Absolute

----------

15