ABS(x)

Description:

This function returns the absolute value of a number. The absolute value of a number is the number without its sign.

 

Syntax: ABS (Number)

• Number : Enter a number or a range in another PowerOLAP cube for which you want the absolute value.

Remarks

• The number argument is compulsory.
• Number is the real number of which you want the absolute value.

Example

=ABS (9)	-Absolute value of  9 (9)
=ABS (-2)	-Absolute value of -2 (2)
=ABS ("range of reference")	-Absolute value of the number in that range.

 

Let us take the example of a cube in PowerOLAP which has accounting data, and suppose if a user wants to pull in accounting data and view it as financial data with all numbers as positive, in this case we can write a formula in PowerOLAP to pull in values from one cube and write them to the Financials cube as positive absolute numbers as shown in the screen below.



The formula above writes values into "Period_02" of the "Financial Data" cube, from the values in the "AP_Trans " cube, and the values that are pulled in are changed to their absolute form, i.e.., the are converted to positive and then written to the cube.

The ABS function converts the negative numbers, from the "AP_Trans" cube into positive and thus the values that are written into the "Financial Data" cube are all positive values as shown above.