How do I find the difference between two values without knowing which is larger?

I was wondering if there was a function built into Python that can determine the distance between two rational numbers but without me telling it which number is larger. e.g.

>>>distance(6,3)
3
>>>distance(3,6)
3

Obviously I could write a simple definition to calculate which is larger and then just do a simple subtraction:

def distance(x, y):
    if x >= y:
        result = x - y
    else:
        result = y - x
    return result

but I’d rather not have to call a custom function like this. From my limited experience I’ve often found Python has a built in function or a module that does exactly what you want and quicker than your code does it. Hopefully someone can tell me there is a built in function that can do this.

Answer

abs(x-y) will do exactly what you’re looking for:

In [1]: abs(1-2)
Out[1]: 1

In [2]: abs(2-1)
Out[2]: 1