Oracle Decode Help

[saw15]

Good day ..

Trying to use a simple decode statement on a number field.

Basically, I need to find out if the number field is greater or less than zero, and if it is greater than zero I would like to assign the value of one, if it is less than zero, than I would like to assign the value of -1. And I need this in my select statement.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[karluk]

Actually you don't need to use decode for this. The function, sign(x), gives you +1 if x > 0 and -1 if x < 0. The only complication might be when x=0. Then sign(x)=0.

select sign(-5551),sign(789),sign(0) from dual

SIGN(-5551) SIGN(789) SIGN(0)
----------- ---------- ----------
-1 1 0