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Question of the month July 2011 - select 3+-+-+-++4

Jul 13 2011 1:30AM by Madhivanan

Without running this query, can you guess what would be the answer?

Query

select 3+-+-+-++4

Choose the correct Answer

Answer 1      An error which says incorrect syntax near -
Answer 2      7
Answer 3      -1
Answer 4      None of the above

Tags: t-sql, sql_server, sqlserver, tsql, BRH, #TSQL, #SQLServer, question,

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Madhivanan

3 · 39% · 12472

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9 Comments

I am going with Answer 3. I'm not positive how it works but I know if you do -- it equals +.

For this one though I would say you are doing this:

select 3 + -( + -( + (-4))) or adding 3 to a negative results of a negative result of a negative result which results in a negative.

commented on Jul 14 2011 4:38PM

sqlsandwiches

2904 · 0% · 2

-1

Add parenthesis as

select 3+(-(+(-(+(-(+4))))))

and remember that every empty argument is 0 by default, so it becomes

select 3+(0-(0+(0-(0+(0-(0+4)))))) = -1

commented on Jul 15 2011 12:39PM

Szymon Wojcik

67 · 3% · 839

My vote is answer 3: -1

This is from one of your blog that I read recently.

commented on Jul 22 2011 7:58AM

Hardik Doshi

20 · 9% · 2839

It s a real good one. But how is this happening,bcoz consecutive - is giving an error.

commented on Jul 25 2011 4:31AM

Senthil

498 · 0% · 74

Ya its taken as comments, for consecutive - .

commented on Jul 25 2011 4:38AM

Senthil

498 · 0% · 74

Senthil, in the question there are no consecutive hyphens.

commented on Jul 25 2011 4:43AM

Madhivanan

3 · 39% · 12472

Madhivanan,

Thats correct. I saw one of your other blogs stating consecutive + and - will be made as single. So when I was trying it,Select 3+--4 it was taking data after -- as comments.Got confused at the beginning. Thanks for such interesting ones.

Regards.

commented on Jul 26 2011 9:58AM

Senthil

498 · 0% · 74

Senthil, can you post the link for my other blog post that you were talking about?

commented on Jul 27 2011 2:27AM

Madhivanan

3 · 39% · 12472

Select 3+-+-+-++4

Select 3(+ X -)+-+-++4 = Select 3-+-+-++4

Select 3(- X +)-+-++4 = Select 3--+-++4

Select 3(- X -)+-++4 = Select 3++-++4

Select 3(+ X +)-++4 = Select 3+-++4

Select 3(+ X -)++4 = Select 3-++4

Select 3(- X +)+4 = Select 3-+4

Select 3(- X +)4 = Select 3-4

Select 3-4 = -1

commented on Feb 18 2012 4:24AM

Guru Samy

9 · 16% · 4992

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"Question of the month July 2011 - select 3+-+-+-++4" rated 5 out of 5 by 2 readers +Madhivanan