help with negative numbers please

[Bernhard Reiter]

On 20 Dec 1999 02:05:11 GMT, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
>In article <83jd7t$mi1$1 at hardcore.ivn.net>, jmace at ior.com says...
>>
>>This is a really quick question from an extreme newbie, after all I'm only
>>14.  If I have an equation like this: y = z - x.  How can I get y to equal
>>either a negative or positive number.

>Put the equation in your code as you wrote it.  If this does not answer your 
>question, rephrase it.

Yes, the question is not quite clear.
Let me explain a bit. "y" is only one variable, you tell the python
program: please take the value z stands for and substract the value x
stands for and save it in y.

	y = z - x

If you then need another value you can fill a different variable.

	y2 = -(z - x)

Okay, let's assume you want to be sure that y1 contains the positive
difference and y2 the negative difference, you can try:
	
	y1 = abs(z-x)
	y2 = - y1

This should give you some clues.
	Bernhard
-- 
Research Assistant, Geog Dept UM-Milwaukee, USA.  (www.uwm.edu/~bernhard)
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