RE: [office-formula] ABS != Abs?

["Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>]

That's a ridiculous reading of "=>" and it is not stated anywhere. 

If you want to make it clear in the Note, use something like

   ABS({-3;-4}) => ABS(-3) 

(I have no idea why there is a leading "=" on one side and not the other, so
I suggest expressions on both sides in this particular example, since it
doesn't matter what the evaluation base is in 2.3(1.1) examples.)

 - Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Eike Rathke [mailto:erack@sun.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 08:03
To: office-formula@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [office-formula] ABS != Abs?

Hi Dennis,

On Monday, 2010-02-08 10:23:29 -0800, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:

> Right, the first note (in 2.3(1.1)) fails to take the Absolute value and
> incorrectly delivers a negative number.  The result should be "3", not
"-3".

Wrong. The examples give the element that is taken from the array in
that context, not the final result of the formula.

  Eike

-- 
Automatic string conversions considered dangerous. They are the GOTO
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of spreadsheets.  --Robert Weir on the OpenDocument formula subcommittee's
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