Is there a standard sign function (signum, sgn) in C/C++?

Question

I want a function that returns -1 for negative numbers and +1 for positive numbers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_function It's easy enough to write my own, but it seems like something that ought to be in a standard library somewhere.

Edit: Specifically, I was looking for a function working on floats.

Answer 1

The type-safe C++ version:

template <typename T> int sgn(T val) {
    return (T(0) < val) - (val < T(0));
}

Benefits:

• Actually implements signum (-1, 0, or 1). Implementations here using copysign only return -1 or 1, which is not signum. Also, some implementations here are returning a float (or T) rather than an int, which seems wasteful.
• Works for ints, floats, doubles, unsigned shorts, or any custom types constructible from integer 0 and orderable.
• Fast! copysign is slow, especially if you need to promote and then narrow again. This is branchless and optimizes excellently
• Standards-compliant! The bitshift hack is neat, but only works for some bit representations, and doesn't work when you have an unsigned type. It could be provided as a manual specialization when appropriate.
• Accurate! Simple comparisons with zero can maintain the machine's internal high-precision representation (e.g. 80 bit on x87), and avoid a premature round to zero.

Caveats:

• It's a template so it might take longer to compile in some circumstances.

• Apparently some people think use of a new, somewhat esoteric, and very slow standard library function that doesn't even really implement signum is more understandable.

• The < 0 part of the check triggers GCC's -Wtype-limits warning when instantiated for an unsigned type. You can avoid this by using some overloads:

   template <typename T> inline constexpr
   int signum(T x, std::false_type is_signed) {
       return T(0) < x;
   }
  
   template <typename T> inline constexpr
   int signum(T x, std::true_type is_signed) {
       return (T(0) < x) - (x < T(0));
   }
  
   template <typename T> inline constexpr
   int signum(T x) {
       return signum(x, std::is_signed<T>());
   }
  

  (Which is a good example of the first caveat.)