uabs/unsigned_abs

[sollyucko]

It would be great to have a uabs or unsigned_abs (or something else, the name isn't important) method that returns the absolute value of the given signed integer as an unsigned integer of the same size. (e.g. uabs(self: i8) -> u8)

Advantages

• It encodes the guarantee that the result is positive.
• It is more concise and less error-prone than workarounds

Disadvantages

• None?

Implementation

impl iX {
    pub fn uabs(self) -> uX {
        self.wrapping_abs() as uX
    }
}

Alternatives

• x.abs() as uX
  • iX::MIN.abs() panics in debug mode
• x.wrapping_abs() as uX
  • Very verbose
• if x == iX::MIN { x as uX } else { x.abs() as uX }
  • Extremely verbose
• Redefining iX::abs
  • May cause compatibility issues

Related: #1017, rust-lang/rust#2353

[sollyucko]

If x == i8::MIN == -128_i8, then x.wrapping_abs() == -128_i8 and then, since in 8-bit 2's complement, -128_i8 is represented as 0b1000_0000, when converted to u8, 0b1000_0000 is interpreted as 128_u8, which is correct.

[RustyYato]

@sollyucko That works playground

[RalfJung]

Yes please! wrapping and as set off all the alarm bells when looking for bugs in integer code, so having a method that is just documented as "always returns the correct absolute value, no wrapping ever" would be great.

[scottmcm]

Looks like this went in: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/std/primitive.i64.html#method.unsigned_abs

Anyone interested should follow the tracking issue now: rust-lang/rust#74913