SIGN in WPS Spreadsheet: Classify Negative, Zero and Positive Values

• Introduced: documented by 2019-06-21 in the official WPS lesson; original introduction is not established.
• Availability: WPS Office for Windows Personal; no numeric release is stated. This is documentation evidence, not an installed-build guarantee.
• Scope: exact supported builds remain unverified. The Windows lesson does not establish equivalent availability in other WPS clients.
• Checked: October 14, 2026 against function-specific documentation. Examples were independently calculated; no native WPS test was performed.

=SIGN(number)

The argument is a real number. The examples use numeric cells, English function names and comma separators in nested formulas. The dated product source does not establish a complete text, Boolean or error-propagation matrix for current WPS clients.

A sign code is a numeric result, not a Boolean TRUE/FALSE classification. Treating every nonzero result as positive would incorrectly group -1 with +1. Keep the three categories distinct when they have different meanings.

Put -25, -0.2, 0, 0.2, 25 in A2:A6 and fill down:

=SIGN(A2)

Expected outputs are -1, -1, 0, 1 and 1. The negative inputs have different magnitudes but the same code; likewise for the positive pair. Zero is the only value in this control that produces zero.

For numeric 0.000001, the expected sign is one even if the cell’s display is rounded to 0.00. SIGN tests the stored value rather than what a limited-decimal format makes visible.

For baseline values 12, 8, 5 in C2:C4 and follow-up values 9, 8, 11 in D2:D4, fill:

=SIGN(D2-C2)

Expected direction codes are -1, 0 and 1, from changes -3, 0 and +6. The subtraction order matters: baseline minus follow-up would reverse the signs of the nonzero changes.

This is an arithmetic direction rule. Whether an increase is good or bad depends on the measure and should not be silently encoded into the word positive. Keep the original values and the numerical difference beside the sign flag.

For numeric -17:

=SIGN(-17)*ABS(-17)

Expected result: -17, because -1 times 17 restores the sign. For numeric 0 and 17, the corresponding controls return 0 and 17. ABS and SIGN separate magnitude from direction in this finite real-valued model.

By contrast, multiplying the original value by its sign gives its absolute magnitude: =-17*SIGN(-17) has expected result 17. These two related constructions should not be confused when manipulating a change column.

Suppose changes whose absolute magnitude is at most 0.01 should be labeled neutral for a particular report. For source values in F2:F6 of -0.02, -0.005, 0, 0.005, 0.02, use:

=IF(ABS(F2)<=0.01,0,SIGN(F2))

Expected report codes are -1, 0, 0, 0 and 1. The raw SIGN codes would instead be -1, -1, 0, 1 and 1. The tolerance comes from the explicit reporting rule, not from SIGN itself.

The threshold includes its endpoints: values -0.01 and +0.01 fall in the neutral category under this formula. Choose the tolerance from the measurement requirements rather than using a small constant merely to hide inconvenient results.

For changes -9, 1 and 2, the SIGN values are -1, 1 and 1, whose sum is 1. The actual changes sum to -6. A majority of positive directions does not imply a positive net amount.

For changes -9 and 9, sign codes total zero and changes also total zero. That agreeing pair does not make the two summaries interchangeable. Decide whether the report measures direction counts or the magnitude of total change.

SIGN does not validate the units, meaningfulness or expected range of an input. It cannot distinguish a small rounding residue from a genuine tiny measurement unless a separate policy defines that distinction.

The worked outputs follow the official three-way definition and independent arithmetic. No native WPS execution or universal handling of imported text, infinities or every floating-point boundary is claimed. Preserve the raw numeric change when adding sign and tolerance columns so a classification can be audited later.

• WPS Academy: SIGN lesson, 2019-06-21 (Chinese; Windows Personal scope).
• Editorial testing standards.

The cited WPS product lesson was read directly. Worked outputs are independent expectations, not captured native results or proof of support across all current WPS clients.