Date Calculation (Negative Display)

[willadams]

I have a query where in I am subtracting 2 dates from the current time.  While my query works, I have noted that if the difference is 2 days in the past then this is reflected as a positive number in my table.  For example:

I have the following records

expiry_date	request_id
05/08/2021	1234
05/08/2021	4567
01/08/2021	8901
30/08/2021	2345

My query is 

|inputlookup mycurrentrequests.csv
| eval requests_past=round(abs((now()-strptime('expiry_date', "%d/%m/%Y")))/86400,0)
| where requests_past > 1 AND requests_past < 30

The search will run, however what I will now see in my view is

expiry_date	request_id	requests_past
05/08/2021	1234	2
05/08/2021	4567	2
01/08/2021	8901	2
30/08/2021	2345	27

For the expiry_date of 01/08/2021 this is in the past so technically "2" is correct but I want this to be presented as "-2".  

I will then use this to effectively do a "where requests_past is <0" as well as a "where requests_past is > 0" 

[ITWhisperer · Accepted solution]

It is the abs function which is changing -2 to 2 - try without it

| eval requests_past=round((now()-strptime('expiry_date', "%d/%m/%Y"))/86400,0)

[willadams]

Thanks. For this particular instance absolute function should not be being used.