Make a negative number positive

[Cusem]

This maybe is a stupid question, but I'm trying to turn a negative number (like -3, -0.15, -18) into a positive value (like 3, 0.15, 18).

For instance:

$var[5][2] = [[0.18, "Johnny"][-6, "Elsa"][2, "Robby"][0.57, "Esther"][-0.29, "Marcus"]]

_Arraysort($var, 0, 0, 0, 2)

I want extract the name that's closest to 0, however if I sort in this order, "Elsa" will be $var[0][0] and I want "Johnny" to become $var[0][0].

This is why I want to make the negative values positive ("elsa" and "marcus"), but I'm kinda stuck on how to do this the simplest way.

[Paulie]

You are looking for Abs() (Absolute Value)

$Negative = Random(-100, -1,1)
$Positive = Abs($Negative)
Msgbox(0,"", "Negative: "&$Negative&@CRLF&"Positive: "&$Positive)

Edited April 10, 2008 by Paulie

[Richard Robertson]

Paul, what do you think you're doing, answering my easy questions.

[MrCreatoR]

The same without using the Abs()..

$Negative = Random(-100, -1,1)
$Positive = -$Negative
Msgbox(0,"", "Negative: "&$Negative&@CRLF&"Positive: "&$Positive)

[weaponx]

The same without using the Abs()..

$Negative = Random(-100, -1,1)
$Positive = -$Negative
Msgbox(0,"", "Negative: "&$Negative&@CRLF&"Positive: "&$Positive)

This is NOT the same as abs().

[amokoura]

if $number < 0 then
  $numberDoubleNegative = 2 * $number
  $numberPositified = $number - $numberDoubleNegative
  $number = $numberPositified 
endif

Whoa I just won AutoIt

[Squirrely1]

Cusem - this works to do what you want:

#Include <Array.au3>

;Dim $var[5][2] = [["0.18", "Johnny"], ["-6", "Elsa"], ["2", "Robby"], ["0.57", "Esther"], ["-0.29", "Marcus"]]
Dim $var[5][2] = [[0.18, "Johnny"], [-6, "Elsa"], [2, "Robby"], [0.57, "Esther"], [-0.29, "Marcus"]]
For $i = 0 To UBound($var) - 1
;$var[$i][0] = String(Abs(Number($var[$i][0])))
    $var[$i][0] = Abs($var[$i][0])
Next

_Arraysort($var, 0, 0, 0, 2)
_ArrayDisplay($var)

I'm not sure of the wisdom of mixing strings with numbers in an array, but this code seems to work. I initially changed the numbers in you defined array into strings and used the rem'd - out line to "ABS" the data.

Here is from the help file under AutoIt > Language Reference > Variables:

An Array is a variable containing series of data elements of the same type and size....

It was said that an Array contains only one datatype of the same type. But technically speaking, a Variant in AutoIt can contain anything from a number to a boolean value. So an AutoIt-Array could also contain different types, even other Arrays: ...

This has not been strictly forbidden in AutoIt. However, it is NOT ADVISABLE to mix different datatypes in an Array. Especially the use of an Array inside another Array will severely affect the execution speed of your script.

Edited April 11, 2008 by Squirrely1

[MrCreatoR]

This is NOT the same as abs().

I didn't say that it is

I only say that you not have to use Abs() to get positive number.

[Cusem]

Thanks guys!

This was exactly what I was looking for!

[Xenobiologist]

HI,

can also do a * -1

Mega

[amokoura]

Or:

sqrt($num ^ 2)

[Richard Robertson]

That's probably the fastest outside of Abs. But then you will lose data if the number is large.

[Malkey]

Another Abs() equivalent

$num * ((-1)^($num<0))

,where $num is positive or negative.

Only took 11days to think of it.