abs() Function in C - Scaler Topics (2023)

Overview

In the C programming language, the use of the function abs in C is to return the absolute value of an integer. By integer, it means that the abs() is an arithmetics function. The stdlib.h library contains predefined function abs() for computing the absolute value of integers.

By absolute value, it means the function returns the positive value of an integer. Let's say we have an int value -3, and we want to know what the absolute value of -3 is. So we will use the absolute function and return the absolute value of -3, which is 3.

Let's have a look at the syntax of abs() function :

Syntax of abs() in C

In the C programming language, abs() has the following syntax

Parameters of abs() in C

The parameter or argument of abs() function is an integral value. In the above syntax, it is x.

Return Value of abs() in C

Whatever integer value we pass into the absolute function abs(), the absolute value of that integer is the return value of abs() in C. In the above, the return value of abs() is the absolute value of x.

Example

A single and short code example to get the absolute value of a number using the abs() function.

Program:

Output:

What is abs in C?

The abs function in the C programming language stands for "Absolute Value". In other words, it's the distance between a number and a number line beginning at 0, without taking the direction into account. A number will always have a positive abs value or absolute value, meaning that a distance will never be negative.

Required Header

To use the abs() function in C, you need a header file called <stdlib.h>.

Applies To

You can use the abs function in the following C versions :

  • ANSI/ISO98991990ANSI/ISO 9899-1990ANSI/ISO98991990

More Examples

Program to Get the Absolute Value of a Number Using the Function abs in C

Program:

Output:

Program to Print the Absolute Values of the Given Integers Using abs in C

Output:

Program to Print the Absolute Values Between Two Integers Using for Loop

Program:

Output:

Program to Get the Absolute Value Without Using the Function abs in C

Program:

Output:

Conclusion

Let's summarize what we have learned in this tutorial,

  • The use of the function abs in C programming is to return the absolute value of an integer.
  • By absolute value, it means the function returns the positive value of an integer.
  • The parameter or argument of function abs in C is an integral value.
  • To use the abs() function in C, you need a header file called <stdlib.h>.
  • Absolute value of the integer is returned by abs().

FAQs

How to use abs () function in C? ›

The use of the function abs in C programming is to return the absolute value of an integer. By absolute value, it means the function returns the positive value of an integer. The parameter or argument of function abs in C is an integral value. To use the abs() function in C, you need a header file called <stdlib.

What does the abs () function do? ›

Returns the absolute value of a number. The absolute value of a number is the number without its sign.

How to get absolute value of float in C? ›

fabs() — Calculate Floating-Point Absolute Value
  1. Format. #include <math.h> double fabs(double x);
  2. Language Level. ANSI.
  3. Threadsafe. Yes.
  4. Description. The fabs() function calculates the absolute value of the floating-point argument x.
  5. Return Value. The fabs() function returns the absolute value. ...
  6. Example. ...
  7. Related Information.

What is abs in syntax? ›

ABS ( number ) returns the absolute value of number. The result has no sign and is formatted according to the current NUMERIC settings. Here are some examples: ABS('12.3') -> 12.3 ABS(' -0.307') -> 0.307.

What does the function abs () return? ›

The abs() function returns the absolute value of the specified number.

How do you use abs formula? ›

How to Use the Absolute Value Shortcut in Excel
  1. Step 1: Select the cell where you want to calculate absolute value. Click on the cell where you want to calculate absolute value. ...
  2. Step 2: Type the formula. Type the formula =ABS( ) into the cell. ...
  3. Step 3: Enter the number or cell reference. ...
  4. Step 4: Press Enter.

What happens when ABS is activated? ›

When ABS is working properly, the driver may feel the brake pedal suddenly drop, followed by a rapid pulsing sensation. There may be a grinding or buzzing noise coming from the vehicle during the period ABS is activated. It may also feel like the brake pedal is pushing back when ABS activates.

Why does ABS activate? ›

ABS activates only in slippery conditions or during emergency stops when a driver slams on the brakes, causing them to lock up. The anti-lock brake system is speed sensitive, and the brake system will not activate at very slow speeds. Some systems are designed to prevent only the rear wheels from locking up.

How necessary is ABS? ›

Without ABS, your front wheels will lock if you brake hard and the car will skid in a straight line, irrespective of what way the front wheels are pointing, unless you release some brake pressure and allow the front wheels to spin again. ABS does the same thing, you just don't have to think about it.

How to get 2 digit float in C? ›

we now see that the format specifier "%. 2f" tells the printf method to print a floating point value (the double, x, in this case) with 2 decimal places. Similarly, had we used "%. 3f", x would have been printed rounded to 3 decimal places.

How to check if a number is float in C? ›

I would suggest the following:
  1. Read the number into a floating point variable, val , say.
  2. Put the integer part of val into an int variable, truncated , say.
  3. Check whether or not val and truncated are equal.
Nov 19, 2013

How to convert a number to float in C? ›

int total=0, number=0; float percentage=0.0; percentage=(number/total)*100; printf("%. 2f", percentage); If the value of the number is 50 and the total is 100, I should get 50.00 as percentage and that is what I want.

What is abs () in SQL? ›

The ABS() function returns the absolute value of a number.

How do you find the absolute value? ›

The absolute value of the number is defined as its distance from the origin. For example, to find the absolute value of 7, locate 7 on the real line and then find its distance from the origin. To find the absolute value of −7, locate −7 on the real line and then find its distance from the origin.

How do you find the absolute difference? ›

The absolute difference between two variables, for example two means or proportions is simply one subtracted from the other. It is often written as δB,A or δabs = μ1 - μ2, equivalently δabs = p1 - p2 for proportions.

What data type does abs return? ›

The abs() method returns the absolute (positive) value of a number.

Does abs function in reverse? ›

ABS stands for ABSOLUTE VALUE, meaning the SPAN of a number from 0 regardless of its direction (positive or negative). There is no equivalent function that would selectively convert a positive number to a negative number.

Does abs return double? ›

Abs(Double)

Returns the absolute value of a double-precision floating-point number.

When should abs be activated? ›

ABS kicks in under heavy braking and gives the driver better control over the car by keeping the rotation of the wheels consistent, allowing the car to slow down or stop in a safe manner. As ABS allows you to maintain control of the car during heavy braking, you're able to steer away from and avoid hazards in the road.

What is abs variance? ›

The absolute deviation, variance and standard deviation are such measures. The absolute and mean absolute deviation show the amount of deviation (variation) that occurs around the mean score. To find the total variability in our group of data, we simply add up the deviation of each score from the mean.

How do you solve an ABS value inequality? ›

To solve an absolute value inequality involving “less than,” such as |X|≤p, replace it with the compound inequality −p≤X≤p and then solve as usual. To solve an absolute value inequality involving “greater than,” such as |X|≥p, replace it with the compound inequality X≤−p or X≥p and then solve as usual.

Does ABS work automatically? ›

The best way to prevent skidding is to apply a form of braking called cadence braking. A driver who is skilled at this can usually avoid wheel lockup, but an anti-lock braking system does the job automatically and usually more efficiently.

Is ABS Active or Passive? ›

ABS sensors are classified in to two different types, Passive and Active. Passive is without a power supply and Active is with a power supply. These comprise of a wire coil wound around a magnetic core and a permanent magnet.

What are the three stages of ABS operation? ›

Three phases of operation take place in a triple fluid circuit system of an anti-lock brake having one pair of solenoid valves per circuit. These include : (i) pressure reduction phase, (ii) pressure maintenance phase, and (Hi) pressure increase phase.

Does ABS stop faster? ›

ABS guarantee optimum brake performance in emergency situations, regardless of a driver's skill. They become active once the car is going faster than about 5 miles per hour. Recent testing has shown that vehicles with ABS generally stop 10 to 15 percent faster than other vehicles.

What is the difference between ABS and not ABS? ›

Unlike a traditional braking system that will lock up the wheels and make manoeuvring a vehicle a challenge in such a situation, ABS utilises advanced sensors and emits rhythmic impulses that prevent wheels from locking. This means the driver can maintain better control of the vehicle in the event of extreme braking.

How to find absolute difference in C? ›

C library function - abs()

The C library function int abs(int x) returns the absolute value of int x.

How to take only 2 decimal places in C? ›

Using %. 2f in printf. It only print 2 decimal points. This way is better because there is no loss of precision.

How to compare two float values in C? ›

Floating point comparison in C++

To compare two floating point values, we have to consider the precision in to the comparison. For example, if two numbers are 3.1428 and 3.1415, then they are same up to the precision 0.01, but after that, like 0.001 they are not same.

How many digits can float hold in C? ›

float and double both have varying capacities when it comes to the number of decimal digits they can hold. float can hold up to 7 decimal digits accurately while double can hold up to 15.

How to read an integer and float in C? ›

Code
  1. Reading an integer and a floating point value. #include <stdio.h> ​ int main() { int a; float b; int x = scanf("%d%f", &a, &b); printf("Decimal Number is : %d\n",a); ...
  2. Reading a string. #include <stdio.h> ​ int main() { char name[20]; scanf("%s", &name); printf("Your name is: %s", name); return 0;

How do you check if a value is float or not? ›

The is_float() function checks whether a variable is of type float or not. This function returns true (1) if the variable is of type float, otherwise it returns false.

How to put a float into a string in C? ›

If you can use C99 standard, then the best way is to use snprintf function. On first call you can pass it a zero-length (null) buffer and it will then return the length required to convert the floating-point value into a string. Then allocate the required memory according to what it returned and then convert safely.

How to write a float value to a file in C? ›

The fwrite() function writes binary data. What you want to write is the human readable (i.e. text) representation of your float values, not the binary representation. You can do this using fprintf() : float slidingCorrelator[N]; FILE *fp; // ...

How do you use abs in power query? ›

  1. Syntax. Number.Abs(number as nullable number) as nullable number.
  2. About. Returns the absolute value of number . If number is null, Number. Abs returns null. number : A number for which the absolute value is to be calculated.
  3. Example 1. Absolute value of -3. Usage. Power Query M Copy. Number.Abs(-3) Output.
Oct 10, 2022

How to find absolute value in MySQL? ›

MySQL ABS() Function

The ABS() function returns the absolute (positive) value of a number.

Is Datediff an absolute value? ›

It finds the difference in dates, and then takes the absolute value. The absolute value would be 0 to 365 for all datediff values from -365 to +365.

How do you write an absolute formula? ›

Absolute references are used when you want to fix a cell location. These cell references are preceded by a dollar sign. By doing this, you are fixing the value of a particular cell reference. For example, if you type the formula = A1+A2 into A3 and copy it to another location: B3, the formula will change to = B1+B2.

What are the 4 steps to solving an absolute value equation? ›

Step 1: Isolate the absolute value|3x - 6| - 9 = -3 |3x - 6| = 6
Step 2: Is the number on the other side of the equation negative?No, it's a positive number, 6, so continue on to step 3
Step 3: Write two equations without absolute value bars3x - 6 = 6
Step 4: Solve both equations3x - 6 = 6 3x = 12 x = 4

How do you find the absolute change example? ›

9,800 workers were made redundant (i.e. retrenched or prematurely released from their contracts) in 2010, compared with 23,430 in 2009. Total employment rose by 115,900 in 2010 from the level of 2,990,000 in December 2009. Here, the total employment change of 115,900 is the absolute change in total employment in 2010.

How to convert negative number to positive in C? ›

a = -0.340515; to convert this into positive number I used the abs() method as: a = abs(a);

How to use modulus in C? ›

We use the % to denote this type of operator (it's the percentile operator). The modulus operator is added in the arithmetic operators in C, and it works between two available operands. It divides the given numerator by the denominator to find a result.

How to get square root in C? ›

The sqrt() function in C returns the square root of the number. It is defined in the math. h header file. It takes the input(in double) and returns the output(in double).

How to print English representation of a number in C? ›

Step by step descriptive logic to convert number in words.
  1. Input number from user. ...
  2. Extract last digit of given number by performing modulo division by 10. ...
  3. Switch the value of digit found above. ...
  4. Remove last digit from num by dividing it by 10 i.e. num = num / 10 .
  5. Repeat step 2 to 4 till number becomes 0.
Sep 6, 2017

How to ignore negative values in C? ›

How to ignore negative values in array in C
  1. when you find a negative loop restart the body of the loop if (a[i] < 0) { printf(... ...
  2. Instead of if (a[i] > 0) use else . ...
  3. BTW: Using scanf for user input is problematic. ...
  4. "Whole numbers only, Try again\n" does not match code a[i] < 0 .
Mar 29, 2021

How to reverse a negative number in C? ›

If the number is negative, we need to multiply it with -1 to make it positive. This positive number has to be reversed first and multiplied again with -1 to obtain its negative representation.

How to handle negative numbers in C? ›

The C standard doesn't mandate any particular way of representing negative signed numbers. In most implementations that you are likely to encounter, negative signed integers are stored in what is called two's complement. The other major way of storing negative signed numbers is called one's complement.

How to break out of C code? ›

In C, if you want to exit a loop when a specific condition is met, you can use the break statement. As with all statements in C, the break statement should terminate with a semicolon ( ; ).

How do you write a modulus operator? ›

Enter the Modulo

The modulo operation (abbreviated “mod”, or “%” in many programming languages) is the remainder when dividing. For example, “5 mod 3 = 2” which means 2 is the remainder when you divide 5 by 3.

How to write powers in C? ›

The pow() function (power function) in C is used to find the value x y x^y xy (x raised to the power y) where x is the base and y is the exponent. Both x and y are variables of the type double. The value returned by pow() is of the type double.

How to define double in C? ›

A double in c can be printed by both using %f and %lf. Both the %f format specifier and the %lf format specifier represent float and double. The printf() in c treats both float and double the same.

How to multiply in C? ›

Program to Multiply Two Numbers

printf("Enter two numbers: "); scanf("%lf %lf", &a, &b); Then, the product of a and b is evaluated and the result is stored in product . product = a * b; Finally, product is displayed on the screen using printf() .

How to convert a number to text in C? ›

Let's see the c program to convert number in characters.
  1. #include<stdio.h>
  2. #include<stdlib.h>
  3. int main(){
  4. long int n,sum=0,r;
  5. system("cls");
  6. printf("enter the number=");
  7. scanf("%ld",&n);
  8. while(n>0)

How to print all ASCII value in C? ›

We can print the ASCII values in C of any character by using the %d format specifier. To print all ASCII characters, we can use a loop that iterates through numbers 0 to 255 and then print the characters using %c and %d format specifiers.

How to convert digit into words in C? ›

C program to convert digit to words
  1. Define a function solve(), this will take d,
  2. if d < 0 and d > 9, then: ...
  3. otherwise when d is same as 0, then: ...
  4. otherwise when d is same as 1, then: ...
  5. otherwise when d is same as 2, then: ...
  6. otherwise when d is same as 3, then: ...
  7. otherwise when d is same as 4, then:
Oct 8, 2021

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Terence Hammes MD

Last Updated: 02/12/2023

Views: 6414

Rating: 4.9 / 5 (49 voted)

Reviews: 88% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Terence Hammes MD

Birthday: 1992-04-11

Address: Suite 408 9446 Mercy Mews, West Roxie, CT 04904

Phone: +50312511349175

Job: Product Consulting Liaison

Hobby: Jogging, Motor sports, Nordic skating, Jigsaw puzzles, Bird watching, Nordic skating, Sculpting

Introduction: My name is Terence Hammes MD, I am a inexpensive, energetic, jolly, faithful, cheerful, proud, rich person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.