How to Check a Number is Negative, Positive or 0 in Python

John on November 22, 2021

In this tutorial, we will look at some of the different ways of determining whether a number is positive, negative or zero in Python.

The if elif else Solution

First, we check if the number is greater than 0, if True it must be positive, then we check if it is equal to zero, else the number must be negative.

num = -1
if num > 0:
  print("Positive number")
elif num == 0:
  print("Zero")
else:
  print("Negative number")

Negative number

Nested if Statement Solution

Another way to approach this is with a nested if statement.

num = -1
if num >= 0:
  if num == 0:
      print("Zero")
  else:
      print("Positive number")
else:
  print("Negative number")

Negative number