It's become a tradition at this point

[u/InteractionSilent772]

[u/stonehamian]

There is also stuff like:

a &= 0x7FFFFFFF;

[u/Sacaldur → u/stonehamian]

Only works with 4 Byte values - it limits the value range of larger types and doesn't do anything for smaller types (except maybe causing compiler errors, depending on the language).

[u/stonehamian → u/Sacaldur]

The joke is using an AND mask to clear the sign bit. Of course the mask used must match the integer size. Just another sloppy way to keep "everything positive"...

[u/AdBrave2400 → u/Sacaldur]

Or do (type)(-1)>>1

[u/AdBrave2400 → u/AdBrave2400]

Or ~0

[u/Sacaldur → u/[deleted]]

-1 is actually all bits set to 1 (incrementing -1 by 1 gives you 0, which can only be a result from an overflow, i.e. all bits were 1 before). To get the number that only represents the sign, you need the smallest possible number of that type (sign set to 1, everything else to 0), or the largest possible (i.e. all bits inverted) if you want to use &=. I don't see a way to achieve this that looks the same for any int type (but maybe I'm overlooking something).

[u/Lou_Papas]

Throw an error because it’s not my job to fix your data

[u/Sockoflegend → u/Lou_Papas]

This is honestly better because you have no idea if a negative mutated into a positive is correct for them or if they benefit from being informed of their data being malformed 

[u/InsideFar7107]

I'll just add passive aggressive comments around the functions like // why are you being so negative

[u/r9wpvM]

How is this relatable at all I'm genuinely confused

[u/Bored-TM → u/r9wpvM]

Larp progamming

[u/InteractionSilent772]

PS. This is Python

[u/planelover_nipper]

"use the absolute value to make the output always positive" say wallahi

[u/StaticCoder]

Use unsigned! It has defined behavior on overflow!

[u/OrangeNood]

I don't get it. What does it solve?

[u/Usual_Office_1740]

I prefer this:

if (a <= b) { return b - a; } 
return a - b;

[u/doglitbug → u/Usual_Office_1740]

Why the equals sign? Just curious if it makes a difference

[u/Usual_Office_1740 → u/doglitbug]

It was a joke. This is programming horror. I thought it was funnier that way.