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Java BigInteger Class | signum() Method with Example

BigInteger Class signum() method: Here, we are going to learn about the signum() method of BigInteger Class with its syntax and example.
Submitted by Preeti Jain, on May 11, 2020

BigInteger Class signum() method

• signum() method is available in java.math package.
• signum() method is used to perform signum (sign number) function on this BigInteger.
• signum() method is a non-static method, it is accessible with the class object only and if we try to access the method with the class name then we will get an error.
• signum() method does not throw an exception at the time of performing signum function.

Syntax:

    public int signum();

Parameter(s):

• None

Return value:

The return type of this method is int, it returns any one of the given values based on the result [1,0 , -1].

• When this BigInteger holds value > 0, it returns 1.
• When this BigInteger holds value < 0, it returns -1.
• When this BigInteger holds value = 0, it returns 0.

Example:

// Java program to demonstrate the example 
// of int signum() method of BigInteger

import java.math.*;

public class SignumOfBI {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        // Initialize three variables str1
        // str2 and str3
        String str1 = "1245";
        String str2 = "0";
        String str3 = "-100";

        // Initialize three BigInteger objects  
        BigInteger b_int1 = new BigInteger(str1);
        BigInteger b_int2 = new BigInteger(str3);
        BigInteger b_int3 = new BigInteger(str2);

        // Display b_int1 , b_int2 and b_int3
        System.out.println("b_int1: " + b_int1);
        System.out.println("b_int2: " + b_int2);
        System.out.println("b_int3: " + b_int3);

        // returns the signum (sign number) of
        // this BigInteger b_int1 (1245) so it
        // returns 1 because b_int1 holds positive value
        int signum = b_int1.signum();
        System.out.println("b_int1.signum(): " + signum);

        // returns the signum (sign number) of
        // this BigInteger b_int2 (-100) so it
        // returns -1 because b_int2 holds negative value
        signum = b_int2.signum();
        System.out.println("b_int2.signum(): " + signum);

        // returns the signum (sign number) of
        // this BigInteger b_int3 (0) so it
        // returns 0 because b_int3 holds value 0
        signum = b_int3.signum();
        System.out.println("b_int3.signum(): " + signum);
    }
}

Output

b_int1: 1245
b_int2: -100
b_int3: 0
b_int1.signum(): 1
b_int2.signum(): -1
b_int3.signum(): 0