### 10.1.9 Rewriting with absolute values

The linabs command attempts rewriting piecewise defined expressions, as well as expressions involving step functions (signum and Heaviside) and/or absolute values, as a linear combination of absolute values of linear arguments (see Section 8.3.2).

- linabs takes one mandatory argument and one optional argument:
  - expr, an expression.
  - Optionally, x, a variable (by default, x=x).
- linabs(expr ⟨,x ⟩) returns expr written as an expression depending on parameters of form |x−a| instead on step/piecewise expressions.
- linabs tries to find a simplest representation by nesting the parameters |x−a|.

#### Examples

linabs(sin(x)*Heaviside(x)-sin(x)*Heaviside(-x))

sin | ⎪ ⎪ | x | ⎪ ⎪

f:=piecewise(x<-1,x+5/2,x<2,2-x^2/2,x-2):; linabs(f,x)

⎛ ⎝ | x+4 | ⎞ ⎠ | ⎪ ⎪ | x−2 | ⎪ ⎪
4
| + |
⎛ ⎝ | −x−1 | ⎞ ⎠ | ⎪ ⎪ | x+1 | ⎪ ⎪
4
| +x+ |
1
4

linabs is useful for expanding expressions which contain nested absolute values. For example:

linabs(abs(abs(x-2)+x*abs(x+1)+1))

x2+x | ⎪ ⎪ | x+1 | ⎪ ⎪ | + | ⎛ ⎝ | −x+1 | ⎞ ⎠ | ⎪ ⎪ | x+3 | ⎪ ⎪ | + | ⎪ ⎪ | x−2 | ⎪ ⎪ | +2 x−2

linabs(abs(1-2*abs(2-3*abs(x-3))))

−6 | ⎪ ⎪ | x−3 | ⎪ ⎪ | +3 | ⎪ ⎪ | 2 x−5 | ⎪ ⎪ | +3 | ⎪ ⎪ | 2 x−7 | ⎪ ⎪ | −2 | ⎪ ⎪ | 3 x−7 | ⎪ ⎪ | −2 | ⎪ ⎪ | 3 x−11 | ⎪ ⎪ | + | ⎪ ⎪ | 6 x−13 | ⎪ ⎪ | + | ⎪ ⎪ | 6 x−23 | ⎪ ⎪ | −5