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

Although this shouldn't be a bottle neck as branching issues on modern processors isn't normally a problem, but in the case of integers you could go for a branch-less solution as outlined here: http://graphics.stanford.edu/~seander/bithacks.html#IntegerAbs.

(x + (x >> 31)) ^ (x >> 31);

This does fail in the obvious case of Integer.MIN_VALUE however, so this is a use at your own risk solution.