Name
Abs Function
Syntax
result
= Abs(number
)
-
number
Use: Required
Data Subtype: Any valid numeric expression
The number whose absolute value is to be returned.
Return Value
The absolute value of
number
. The datatype
is the same as that passed to the function.
Description
Returns the absolute value of a number (i.e., its unsigned
magnitude). For example, Abs(-1)
and
Abs(1)
both return 1. If
number
contains Null
,
Null
is returned; if it’s an uninitialized
variable, zero is returned.
Rules at a Glance
Only numeric values can be passed to the Abs
function.
Example
In this example, a variant of subtype Boolean is used within the script. However, a database field used to store the flag expects either 1 for True or for False. Therefore, because the VBScript Boolean True value is -1, before writing to the database, you must first convert the True value to its unsigned magnitude of 1:
<% 'bFlag will have a value of either True or False 'convert the boolean to an integer -1 or 0 iFlag = cInt(bFlag) 'use Abs function to obtain the absolute value iFlag = Abs(iFlag) 'iFlag will now contain either 1 or 0 %>
Programming Tips & Gotchas
Because the Abs
function accepts only numeric
values, you may want to check the value you pass to
Abs
using the IsNumeric
function to prevent generating an error. This is illustrated in the
following code snippet:
<% If IsNumeric(vExtent) Then Extent = Abs(vExtent) ... End If <%
See Also
IsNumeric Function |
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