Well, I'm not replying MVPly, and some would argue that I'm not
advising expertly either, but my advice would be not to use ABS() in
place of the double unary minus, because if my text number is a
negative one ABS turns it positive while the double unary minus leaves
it negative.
--
David Biddulph

On 17 Aug, 09:28, " wrote

ABS() works for for me (Excel97 s2) for simple conversion of positive
or negative text ("" or ') to a real number.

Particularly as inExcelfunctions (where comments in the code is not
possible) I think clarity is essential (even going to hidden columns
instead of very complex functions).

For those who are expertly or MVPly helping inexperienced users, I
think that they have a duty to be explicitly clear in their advice.

Alan Lloyd

On Aug 17, 9:07 am, "DavidBiddulph" <groups [at]biddulph.org.uk
wrote:

If you're only trying to distinguish 0 from 1, then ABS() would work, but
that doesn't work in other cases where -- works, such as converting a text
representation of a number (including negative numbers) into a real number.
There are many other options, including the use of +0 or *1. The choice of
which (if any) to use is with the user, of course.