Solution Review: Absolute Value

In the following lesson, we will go over the solution of the challenge: Absolute Value.

We'll cover the following

Task

In this challenge, you had to create a function which computes the absolute value of a given number.

Solution

A skeleton of the function was already provided for you. Let’s look it over.

def absolute(x: Double): Double = {

}

The function name is absolute, and it takes a single parameter of type Double and returns a value of type Double.

The parameter name is x and is the number whose absolute value needs to be calculated. The absolute value of a number is simply the positive value of the number after ignoring its signs (+ or -). Hence, if the given number is x, we first need to check if it is positive or negative. If it is negative, we will return its positive value by multiplying the number with -.

-(x) or -x

If the number is positive, we will simply return it as is.

x

You can find the complete solution below:

You were required to write the code on line 2.

Press + to interact
def absolute(x: Double): Double = {
    if (x < 0) -x else x
}
// Driver Code
println(absolute(-5))

In the next lesson, we will go over the different evaluation strategies with which an expression is evaluated.