How to find the difference of two numbers and the absolute value of that answer without using math.abs function JAVA

Question

How can I find the absolute value of the difference of two numbers. (BEGINNER)

ie My program will compute |ab| (in that order), WITHOUT using math.abs.

This is what I have so far:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
    double a = in.nextDouble();
    double b = in.nextDouble();
    double value = a - b;

    System.out.println("Enter a: ");
    a = in.nextDouble();

    System.out.println("Enter b: ");
    b = in.nextDouble();

    //If value is negative...make it a positive number.
    value = (value < 0) ? -value : value;

    System.out.println(a + "-" + b + "=" + (a - b));
    System.out.println(b + "-" + a + "=" + (b - a));

}

}

PLEASE HELP, I AM A BEGINNER!

Answer 1

A bit more formatted code.

import java.util.Scanner;
class A {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
        double a;
        double b;
        System.out.println("Enter a: ");
        a = in.nextDouble();

        System.out.println("Enter b: ");
        b = in.nextDouble();
        double value = a - b;



        //If value is negative...make it a positive number.
        value = (value < 0) ? -value : value;
            System.out.println("|"+a + "-" + b +"|" + " =" + value);  // value should be printed here instead of (a-b) or (b-a)
        System.out.println("|"+b + "-" + a +"|" + " =" + value);

    }
}

Answer 2

First of all you are taking scanner two times without any reason

public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);


        System.out.println("Enter a: ");
        double a = in.nextDouble();

        System.out.println("Enter b: ");
        double b = in.nextDouble();

double value = a - b;
double value2 = b - a;

//If value is negative...make it a positive number.
        value = (value < 0) ? -value : value;
        value2 = (value2 < 0) ? -value2 : value2;

        System.out.println(a + "-" + b + "=" + value); //chaged to value
            System.out.println(b + "-" + a + "=" + value2); //changed to value

        }

Answer 3

its simple

assume we have two int a and b. And a variable diff to find the absolute difference. code:

int diff=a-b;
if(diff<0)
diff=b-a;

here you will get the absolute value between a and b.

Answer 4

To have an absolute value for your

value

You can add if condition like below

if (value < 0) {
   value = value * -1;
} 

So that the negative answer (difference) will always be converted to positive (absolute) value.

If the value is greater than 0, then no need as it is already a positive number.