Signum (×), Sign, Sign of, or Direction is a monadic scalar function which returns the sign of a real or complex number. That is, it returns 0 when given an argument of 0, and otherwise returns a number with magnitude 1 given by dividing the argument by its own magnitude.
Examples
The three possible results of Signum on a real argument are 0, 1, and ¯1.
× ¯3 0 5
¯1 0 1
In dialects with complex numbers, Signum is a somewhat more complicated function, and may return any unit complex number.
× 3j4
0.6J0.8
The result is still equal to the original number divided by its magnitude:
| 3j4
5
3j4 ÷ | 3j4
0.6J0.8
The magnitude of the result for a non-zero argument is always 1.
| × 3j4 ¯2j1 6j¯7
1 1 1
Zero divided by zero
The identity ×z 
z÷|z holds only when z is not zero in most APLs. In "Zero Divided by Zero"[1], Eugene McDonnell gave this identity as a reason to define 0÷0 to be equal to 0. In J, which took McDonnell's suggestion, the identity always holds. Dyalog APL and NARS2000 allow the choosing division method though the default remains 1.
External links
Documentation
References
| APL built-ins [edit]
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| Primitives (Timeline) |
Functions
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| Scalar
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| Monadic
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Conjugate ∙ Negate ∙ Signum ∙ Reciprocal ∙ Magnitude ∙ Exponential ∙ Natural Logarithm ∙ Floor ∙ Ceiling ∙ Factorial ∙ Not ∙ Pi Times ∙ Roll ∙ Type ∙ Imaginary ∙ Square Root ∙ Round
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| Dyadic
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Add ∙ Subtract ∙ Times ∙ Divide ∙ Residue ∙ Power ∙ Logarithm ∙ Minimum ∙ Maximum ∙ Binomial ∙ Comparison functions ∙ Boolean functions (And, Or, Nand, Nor) ∙ GCD ∙ LCM ∙ Circular ∙ Complex ∙ Root
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| Non-Scalar
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| Structural
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Shape ∙ Reshape ∙ Tally ∙ Depth ∙ Ravel ∙ Enlist ∙ Table ∙ Catenate ∙ Reverse ∙ Rotate ∙ Transpose ∙ Raze ∙ Mix ∙ Split ∙ Enclose ∙ Nest ∙ Cut (K) ∙ Pair ∙ Link ∙ Partitioned Enclose ∙ Partition
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| Selection
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First ∙ Pick ∙ Take ∙ Drop ∙ Unique ∙ Identity ∙ Stop ∙ Select ∙ Replicate ∙ Expand ∙ Set functions (Intersection ∙ Union ∙ Without) ∙ Bracket indexing ∙ Index ∙ Cartesian Product ∙ Sort
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| Selector
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Index generator ∙ Grade ∙ Index Of ∙ Interval Index ∙ Indices ∙ Deal ∙ Prefix and suffix vectors
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| Computational
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Match ∙ Not Match ∙ Membership ∙ Find ∙ Nub Sieve ∙ Encode ∙ Decode ∙ Matrix Inverse ∙ Matrix Divide ∙ Format ∙ Execute ∙ Materialise ∙ Range
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| Operators |
Monadic
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Each ∙ Commute ∙ Constant ∙ Replicate ∙ Expand ∙ Reduce ∙ Windowed Reduce ∙ Scan ∙ Outer Product ∙ Key ∙ I-Beam ∙ Spawn ∙ Function axis ∙ Identity (Null, Ident)
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| Dyadic
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Bind ∙ Compositions (Compose, Reverse Compose, Beside, Withe, Atop, Over) ∙ Inner Product ∙ Determinant ∙ Power ∙ At ∙ Under ∙ Rank ∙ Depth ∙ Variant ∙ Stencil ∙ Cut ∙ Direct definition (operator) ∙ Identity (Lev, Dex)
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| Quad names
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Index origin ∙ Comparison tolerance ∙ Migration level ∙ Atomic vector
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