title: How to find absolute difference between two numbers MYSQL
body: <p>What's the best way to find the absolute difference between two numbers in MYSQL so that I may order results?  The below works, only if numberA is larger than numberB, but as you can see this is not always the case.  Is there a good way to do this with one statement?</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT (numberA - numberB) AS spread 
  FROM table 
  ORDER BY spread DESC
  
  |-------------------|
  | numberA | numberB |
  | 5.4     | 2.2     |
  | 7.7     | 4.3     |
  | 1       | 6.5     |
  | 2.3     | 10.8    |
  | 4.5     | 4.5     |
  </code></pre>