abs function

Applies to: Databricks SQL Databricks Runtime 10.4 LTS and above

Returns the absolute value of the numeric value in expr.

Syntax

abs(expr)

Arguments

• expr: An expression that evaluates to a numeric or interval.

Returns

A numeric or interval of the same type as expr.

For integral numeric types the function can return an ARITHMETIC_OVERFLOW error.

Warning

In Databricks Runtime if spark.sql.ansi.enabled is false, an overflow does not cause an error but “wraps” the result instead.

Common error conditions

• ARITHMETIC_OVERFLOW

Examples

> SELECT abs(-1);
 1

> SELECT abs(cast(-32768 AS SMALLINT));
 Error: ARITHMETIC_OVERFLOW

Related functions

• sign function
• signum function
• negative function
• positive function