abs value, power, sqrt

Hi folks,

I previously posted this to pgsql-novice but haven't gotten an answer,
so I thought I'd try here.

I need a way to get abs value of a floating point number and (possibly
separate function for) abs value of an integer in a select statement.
Is there a function to do this? If not, how can I write a function to
do it?

Also how do I do squares and square roots? I saw some \|/ type notation
for square root in an SQL book, but I didn't get postgres to take that.

thanks,
Michael

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