Introduction to Math.abs() JavScript Method
With JavaScript, we can carry out mathematical operations faster, and as a language, it provides many ways to work with numbers. There are many operators, properties, methods, and objects that help with mathematics in JavaScript.
A very important one is the Math object, and within it are static
properties and methods that are useful for performing mathematical
operations. One such static method is the math.abs method.
In this article, we will discuss the Math object for some context and
the Math.abs method to deal with absolute values.
The Math Object
Everything in JavaScript is an object. The Math object is a global
object (and is not a constructor or function object) that contains
properties and methods that work with only the Number type.
It provides mathematical constants such as pi and Euler’s constants
among others, and operations such as cosine, sine, or absolute value of
a number. The static properties of the Math object provides the
mathematical constants and the static methods of the Math object.
So, for this article, the Math.abs method provides the absolute value
of a number it’s called upon.
Use Math.abs() JavaScript Method
The static method, Math.abs(), returns the absolute value of a number
passed to it. So if a positive number is passed to the Math.abs()
method, it returns that number, but if you pass a negative number (a
number lower than zero), it will return the positive number of that
number.
Let’s illustrate the Math.abs() method quickly by passing some
numbers.
console.log(Math.abs(-23));
console.log(Math.abs(45));
Output
23
45
But what’s amazing is that it can coerce its parameter (type coercion), and so if you pass a
string that contains a number, it will return the absolute value of that
number. In addition, certain values are coerced to numeric values but
some values are not coercible such as NaN.
console.log(Math.abs("-23"));
console.log(Math.abs(true));
console.log(Math.abs(false));
console.log(Math.abs([]));
Output
23
1
0
0
A good example of how to use the Math.abs() method is calculating
differences. If we are to calculate the difference, we can do it via the
code below
function diff(a, b) {
if (a - b < 0) {
return b - a;
}
return a - b;
}
console.log(diff(3, 2));
console.log(diff(2, 3));
Output
1
1
But we could have implemented the same function using the Math.abs()
method
function diff(a, b) {
return Math.abs(a - b);
}
console.log(diff(3, 2));
console.log(diff(2, 3));
Output
1
1
Summary
The Math.abs() method allows us to get the absolute value of a number,
and can come useful in certain mathematical operations we carry out in
JavaScript.
References
Math - JavaScript | MDN (mozilla.org)
Math.abs() - JavaScript | MDN
(mozilla.org)
Number - JavaScript | MDN
(mozilla.org)
