Support absolute() method for numeric series
#2545
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evansd
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abs() function for numeric seriesabsolute() method for numeric series
rebkwok
approved these changes
Oct 1, 2025
The `abs()` builtin is the Pythonic way of taking the absolute value, but the inconsistency with other ehrQL methods is potentially confusing for our users, most of whom are not experienced Python programmers. We could support both options, but this risks confusion. So instead we raise an error for anyone trying to use the builtin which points them in the right direction.
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This adds support for getting the absolute value of a numeric series.
The motivating use case is being able easily to check whether two dates are within a certain range of each other without caring which comes first (see the related thread).
Note that we've chosen not to support the standard Python builtin
abs()here. While that will be more familiar to experienced Python users, it's weirdly inconsistent with the rest of ehrQL which uses methods over function calls. Given that only a minority of our users are experienced with Python we've generally chosen to prioritise internal consistency over being Pythonic.To avoid confusing more experienced users we make the
abs()function raise an explicit error when called with a numeric series which points the user to the.absolute()method.We can always revisit this decision later if needed.
Closes #2544