Skip to Main Content
PHP in a Nutshell
book

PHP in a Nutshell

by Paul Hudson
October 2005
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
372 pages
11h 35m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from PHP in a Nutshell

Name

abs()

Synopsis

    number abs ( number num )

The abs() function returns the absolute value of the parameter you pass to it. By absolute, I mean that it leaves positive values untouched, and converts negative values into positive values. Thus:

    abs(50); // 50
    abs(-12); // 12

You can either send a floating-point number or an integer to abs(), and it will return the same type:

    abs(50.1); // 50.1
    abs(-12.5); // 12.5

The abs() function is helpful for handling user input, such as "How many t-shirts would you like to buy?" While you could write code to check for values equal to or under 0, and issue warnings if appropriate, it is easier to put all quantity input through abs() to ensure it is positive.

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

PHP Cookbook

PHP Cookbook

Eric A. Mann
Programming PHP

Programming PHP

Rasmus Lerdorf, Kevin Tatroe
Learning PHP

Learning PHP

David Sklar

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596100671Errata Page