Newbie that don't understand

[Fredrik Lundh]

Martin Ståhl wrote:

> if a == b:
>     print "The absolute values of", a,"and",b,"are equal"
> else:
>     print "The absolute values of a and b are different"
>
> with the output being:
> The absolute values of 23 and 23 are equal"
>
> how can 23 and -23 be equal?

"value of" != "absolute value of"

in ordinary math notation, the absolute value of a number
x is written |x|, and is simply what you get if you remove
the sign.

in python, it's usually written:

    abs(x)

also see:
    http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AbsoluteValue.html

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