How to make all values positive?

Question

So I have a list of data that contain both positive and negative values, and I am wondering what I have to do in order to make all the numbers positive.

Answer 1

If you are indifferent to the way your data are made positive, then check Abs function out, which is defined as Abs[x] == x Sign[x]. It leaves zeros unchanged, but does make negative numbers positive. It then suffices to evaluate posdata = Abs[data].

Answer 2

Assuming the list contains negative numbers, you could shift everything to the right on the number line by adding the absolute value of the smallest number plus one. This would preserve the ordering of the elements in your list.

d = RandomInteger[{-10, 10}, 20];

{-2, -7, 10, 5, 5, 7, -3, 7, 2, -2, 9, -8, -1, 1, 3, -8, -6, 8, 0, 3}

d + (Abs@Min@d + 1)

{7, 2, 19, 14, 14, 16, 6, 16, 11, 7, 18, 1, 8, 10, 12, 1, 3, 17, 9, 12}

Answer 3

list = RandomInteger[{-10, 10}, 20]

{8, -2, -1, -1, 10, -10, -9, -4, -2, 3, -2, -1, -8, 1, 6, 5, 0, 3, 5, -10}

When you apply Abs[] to a list, it will be applied to each element of that list:

Abs[list]
Abs @ list

Both return

{8, 2, 1, 1, 10, 10, 9, 4, 2, 3, 2, 1, 8, 1, 6, 5, 0, 3, 5, 10}

Note: That also goes for other functions, like addition:

list + 100

doesn't add the number 100 at the end of the list, but adds 100 to each element:

{108, 98, 99, 99, 110, 90, 91, 96, 98, 103, 98, 99, 92, 101, 106, 105, 100, 103, 105, 90}