Finding absolute value of a number without using Math.abs()

Question

Is there any way to find the absolute value of a number without using the Math.abs() method in java.

Answer 1

Yes:

abs_number = (number < 0) ? -number : number;

For integers, this works fine (except for Integer.MIN_VALUE, whose absolute value cannot be represented as an int).

For floating-point numbers, things are more subtle. For example, this method -- and all other methods posted thus far -- won't handle the negative zero correctly.

To avoid having to deal with such subtleties yourself, my advice would be to stick to Math.abs().