[Tut] Python abs() Function

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Python abs() Function



Python’s built-in

Code:

abs(x)

function returns the absolute value of the argument

Code:

x

that can be an integer, float, or object implementing the

Code:

__abs__()

function. For a complex number, the function returns its magnitude. The absolute value of any numerical input argument

Code:

-x

or

Code:

+x

is the corresponding positive value

Code:

+x

.

Argument |

Code:

x

|
int, float, complex, object with

Code:

__abs__()

implementation

Return Value |

Code:

|x|

|
Returns the absolute value of the input argument.
Integer input –> Integer output
Float input –> Float output
Complex input –> Complex output

Interactive Code Shell

https://trinket.io/embed/python/40d2918774

Example Integer abs()

The following code snippet shows you how to use the absolute value 42 of a positive integer value 42.

Code:

# POSITIVE INTEGER x = 42 abs_x = abs(x) print(f"Absolute value of {x} is {abs_x}") # Absolute value of 42 is 42

The following code snippet shows you how to use the absolute value 42 of a negative integer value -42.

Code:

# NEGATIVE INTEGER x = -42 abs_x = abs(x) print(f"Absolute value of {x} is {abs_x}") # Absolute value of -42 is 42

Example Float abs()

The following code snippet shows you how to use the absolute value 42.42 of a positive integer value 42.42.

Code:

# POSITIVE FLOAT x = 42.42 abs_x = abs(x) print(f"Absolute value of {x} is {abs_x}") # Absolute value of 42.42 is 42.42

The following code snippet shows you how to use the absolute value 42.42 of a negative integer value -42.42.

Code:

# NEGATIVE FLOAT x = -42.42 abs_x = abs(x) print(f"Absolute value of {x} is {abs_x}") # Absolute value of -42.42 is 42.42

Example Complex abs()

The following code snippet shows you how to use the absolute value of a complex number (3+10j).

Code:

# COMPLEX NUMBER complex_number = (3+10j) abs_complex_number = abs(complex_number) print(f"Absolute value of {complex_number} is {abs_complex_number}") # Absolute value of (3+10j) is 10.44030650891055

Python abs() vs fabs()

Python’s built-in function

Code:

abs(x)

calculates the absolute number of the argument

Code:

x

. Similarly, the

Code:

fabs(x)

function of the math module calculates the same absolute value. The difference is that

Code:

math.fabs(x)

always returns a float number while Python’s built-in

Code:

abs(x)

returns an integer if the argument

Code:

x

is an integer as well. The name “fabs” is shorthand for “float absolute value”.

Here’s a minimal example:

Code:

x = 42 # abs() print(abs(x)) # 42 # math.fabs() import math print(math.fabs(x)) # 42.0

Python abs() vs np.abs()

Python’s built-in function

Code:

abs(x)

calculates the absolute number of the argument

Code:

x

. Similarly, NumPy’s

Code:

np.abs(x)

function calculates the same absolute value. There are two differences: (1)

Code:

np.abs(x)

always returns a float number while Python’s built-in

Code:

abs(x)

returns an integer if the argument

Code:

x

is an integer, and (2)

Code:

np.abs(arr)

can be also applied to a NumPy array

Code:

arr

that calculates the absolute values element-wise.

Here’s a minimal example:

Code:

x = 42 # abs() print(abs(x)) # 42 # numpy.abs() import numpy as np print(np.fabs(x)) # 42.0 # numpy.abs() array a = np.array([-1, 2, -4]) print(np.abs(a)) # [1 2 4]

abs and np. absolute are completely identical. It doesn’t matter which one you use. There are several advantages to the short names: They are shorter and they are known to Python programmers because the names are identical to the built-in Python functions.

Summary

The

Code:

abs()

function is a built-in function that returns the absolute value of a number. The function accepts integers, floats, and complex numbers as input.

If you pass

Code:

abs()

an integer or float,

Code:

n

, it returns the non-negative value of

Code:

n

and preserves its type. In other words, if you pass an integer,

Code:

abs()

returns an integer, and if you pass a float, it returns a float.

Code:

# Int returns int >>> abs(20) 20 # Float returns float >>> abs(20.0) 20.0 >>> abs(-20.0) 20.0

The first example returns an int, the second returns a float, and the final example returns a float and demonstrates that

Code:

abs()

always returns a positive number.

Complex numbers are made up of two parts and can be written as

Code:

a + bj

where

Code:

a

and

Code:

b

are either ints or floats. The absolute value of

Code:

a + bj

is defined mathematically as

Code:

math.sqrt(a**2 + b**2)

. Thus, the result is always positive and always a float (since taking the square root always returns a float).

Code:

>>> abs(3 + 4j) 5.0 >>> math.sqrt(3**2 + 4**2) 5.0

Here you can see that

Code:

abs()

always returns a float and that the result of

Code:

abs(a + bj)

is the same as

Code:

math.sqrt(a**2 + b**2)

.

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