Using ABS
 

How can I use the ABS (absolute) function to return an absolute value for a
ranage of numbers that are both negative and positive?

I presume that you are wanting a more involved answer than =ABS(A1), but
your question is not detailed enough for me to know what you really want.

Jerry

Haplo wrote:

How can I use the ABS (absolute) function to return an absolute value for a
ranage of numbers that are both negative and positive?

Well, first of all, you can only use it nested within another function that
will take that range and return a single value (like SUM()) because you can't
return an array into a single cell in Excel. Assuming that is what you want
to do, nest the ABS() function and commit it by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.
For example:

=SUM(ABS(A1:A50)) (entered with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER) will sum the absolute
values of A1 to A50.

--
Regards,
Dave


"Haplo" wrote:

How can I use the ABS (absolute) function to return an absolute value for a
ranage of numbers that are both negative and positive?

You can select a column of 50 cells and array enter =ABS(A1:A50) to
simultaneously populate the entire selection, but it is not clear what
advantage that would have over a cell at a time.

Jerry

David Billigmeier wrote:

Well, first of all, you can only use it nested within another function that
will take that range and return a single value (like SUM()) because you can't
return an array into a single cell in Excel. Assuming that is what you want
to do, nest the ABS() function and commit it by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.
For example:

=SUM(ABS(A1:A50)) (entered with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER) will sum the absolute
values of A1 to A50.