How do you calculate the absolute value of a number in Python?

The absolute value of a number represents its distance from zero on the number line, regardless of direction. In Python, the built-in function abs() is specifically designed for this purpose; it takes a numeric input (which can be an integer, a float, or a complex number) and returns its absolute value. For example, abs(-5) will return 5, while abs(3) will simply return 3.

This makes the abs() function the most efficient and straightforward way to compute absolute values in Python without requiring additional custom code or implementation. The other options, while related to numerical operations, do not serve the purpose of calculating absolute values effectively. For instance, the precision() function does not exist in Python; the round() function is used to round numbers to a specified number of decimal places rather than calculate their absolute values. Creating a custom function to return absolute values would be unnecessary since the abs() function is already optimized and built into the language.