Is a unary operator that returns the negative value of a numeric expression (a unary operator).

Syntax

- numeric_expression

Arguments

numeric_expression

Is any valid Microsoft® SQL Server™ expression of any of the data types of the numeric data type category except the datetime or smalldatetime data types.

Result Types

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

Examples

A. Set a variable to a negative value

This example sets a variable to a negative value.

DECLARE @MyNumber decimal(10,2)
@MyNumber = -123.45

B. Negate a value

This example negates a variable.

DECLARE @Num1 int
SET @Num1 = 5
SELECT -@Num1

See Also