IMABS Function (Calligra Sheets)

• Introduced: First release not established; the name is present in Calligra 2.4.0 source.
• Supported in: Calligra Sheets 26.08.2, with no retirement established.
• Scope: Desktop Sheets with the Engineering module. Examples use English semicolon-separated formulas.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Formulas were executed through the official 25.04.2 engine library and checked against source and independent mathematics. This is not GUI-cell or workbook-import evidence; 26.08.2 was source-checked, not executed.

IMABS returns the nonnegative magnitude of a complex value a+b·i. Mathematically it is √(a²+b²), so the magnitude of 3+4i is 5. This is a real number, not a complex value, and it does not preserve the input’s direction. Function help.

=IMABS(complexValue)

Exactly one complexValue argument is required. Supply a value built by COMPLEX or a supported complex text representation. A real number is treated as a complex number with imaginary part zero. Valid tested strings using either i or j were accepted, but this does not establish every locale or text format. Registration and implementation, with versioned help.

Noninteger results are rounded to twelve decimal places. The formulas construct the input components explicitly, making each case reproducible.

Enter real component 3 in A2 and imaginary component 4 in B2. =IMABS(COMPLEX(A2;B2)) returns 5. For ordinary finite values, compare it with =SQRT(A2^2+B2^2). Both describe the same geometric distance from the origin; neither is simply A2+B2.

The recorded =IMABS(COMPLEX(3;4))^2 returns 25, agreeing with 3²+4². Squared magnitude is useful when comparing signal strengths represented by rectangular components, provided the physical interpretation and units are defined by the model. It should not automatically be called power without that model.

The pairs 3+4i, 3−4i and −3+4i all have magnitude 5. IMABS therefore cannot distinguish their phases. Preserve the original components when direction matters, and use IMARGUMENT separately if an angle is needed.

Invalid text “abc” and the empty string returned 0 in these engine tests, rather than a validation error. The shared complex converter substitutes zero when text parsing does not yield a number, and this wrapper does not check the conversion-success flag. Do not use a zero magnitude to conclude that an imported text value was a genuine zero.

TRUE was converted to 1, while a missing argument returned #VALUE!. Validate input types before aggregation. The small finite examples do not establish overflow, underflow or every nonfinite-number case.

The complex conversion helper explains the text and Boolean cases above. The inspected Engineering module and complex converter are byte-identical between 25.04.2 and 26.08.2. That source comparison does not establish every locale, import path or extreme-value case.