title: How could I efficiently make a number's absolute value closer to zero?
body: <p>I know one possible way of achieving this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>int a = 7;
  int b = -10;
  
  public int makeSmaller(int num) {
    int result = Math.abs(num) - 1;
    if(num &gt; 0) return result;
    else return -result;
  }
  
  makeSmaller(a); //returns 6
  makeSmaller(b); //returns -9
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Are there any more concise way of doing this could use to make this a little cleaner?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>
  
  <p>I want the method to return a result closer to zero by exactly 1, so dividing by 2 or any other number won't work. Neither will multiplying by 0.</p>