- (Negative) (SQL Server Compact)

A unary operator that returns the negative value of a numeric expression.

Syntax

- numeric_expression

Arguments

  • numeric_expression
    Any valid expression in Microsoft SQL Server Compact of any of the data types of the numeric data type category, except the datetime data type.

Result Types

Returns the data type of numeric_expression, except that an unsigned tinyint expression is promoted to a signed smallint result.

Example

The following examples show how the positive and negative unary operators function. When a positive unary operator is set against a negative value, the returned value is negative (positive_value * negative_value = negative_value). When a negative unary operator is set against a negative value, the returned value is positive (negative_value * negative_value = positive_value).

SELECT -(DATEPART(day, Order Date) - DATEPART(day, Shipped Date)) 
FROM Orders 
WHERE OrderID = '10248'
-- With the negative unary operator, the value returned is '12'.

SELECT (DATEPART(day, Order Date) - DATEPART(day, Shipped Date)) 
FROM Orders 
WHERE OrderID = '10248'
-- Without a unary operator, the value returned is '-12'.

SELECT +(DATEPART(day, Order Date) - DATEPART(day, Shipped Date)) 
FROM Orders WHERE OrderID = '10248'
-- With the positive unary operator, the value returned is '-12'.