What is a typical use of the abs function?

• A. To get the absolute value of an integer
• B. To compute the magnitude of a floating-point number
• C. To return the sign of a number
• D. To convert a string to integer

Answer: (A)

The idea being tested is removing the sign from a number to get its magnitude. The abs function returns the non-negative value of its input, so negative numbers become their positive counterparts while positive numbers stay the same. For example, abs(-8) gives 8, and abs(8) gives 8. This is the typical use for integers, since it directly provides the absolute value. The other options describe different operations—returning the sign of a number is a sign-related function, and converting a string to an integer is parsing, not a numeric operation.