'''
Program that returns number of digits in a given integer (either positive or negative)
'''
def ndigits(x):
    # Assume for the input 0 the output is 0
    if(x == 0):
        return 0
    if(abs(x) / 10 == 0):
        return 1
    else:
        return 1 + ndigits(x / 10)

def ndigits(x):
    # Assume for the input 0 the output is 0
    if(x == 0):
        return 0
    else:
        return 1 + ndigits(abs(x) / 10)

def ndigits(x):
    return ndigits_(0, abs(x))

def ndigits_(s,x):
    if(x == 0):
        return s
    else:
        return ndigits(s+1, x / 10)