1.2 Absolute Value

The absolute value (ABS) function in Excel computes the absolute value of a number in the referenced cell. The absolute value is the distance of a number from zero whether positive or negative. To compute an absolute value in Excel, you should click on the cell where you would like the computed value to be stored. After clicking in that cell, use the ABS function to compute this value. The image below shows how this can be done. Notice in cell E3 that the following formula is entered: =ABS(D3). This tells Excel that you would like it to return the absolute value of the number in cell D3. Since the value in cell D3 is already a positive number, the result will be 3. If the ABS formula were to be used to compute the absolute value of cell D4, the result would be positve 5 since -5 is 5 places away from zero.