Coder's Guild Mailing List

Re: Absolute values of phases

Posted by Chris Meador on 2000-11-21

> > I'm creating a VB program that calculates numbers for phase. Since the
> > program will return negative values as well as positive, I need to
> > convert 
> > negative numbers to positive numbers through basic code so that negative
> > values will not appear.

> I cant say I know VB, but there will be a command such as 'ABS' which will
> convert the given number to a positive number i.e. its absolute value.
> Anothelengthy way could be to test if the number is less than 0, and if so
> multiply it by -1.

I don't know what "phase" refers to either, and I don't know VB.

What kind of "numbers"?  (integers or reals)

I would recommend absolute value to avoid negative numbers, also.  If
uniqueness is important, though, I would suggest an offset value (equal to
the absolute value of the least negative number, e.g. 10 if valid values are
-10..5).  Then add this offset before returning the value.  (The new range
in example is 0..15.)  Perhaps that was a bad example if you want only
positive numbers, but not if avoiding negatives...  isn't zero neither?

Well, anyway.  HTH
-- 
Chris Meador  Mississippi State Univ.
904 Suttle Hall        (662) 325-6224
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