Finding max value of 1D vector when all values could be negative

Hello, I have a set of numbers and want to identify the largest difference between adjacent values. I have used the diff function and this returns

DD=diff(D)      % D is my data,and can be postive or negative!!
DD =

-0.8867
-0.9328
-0.9667
-33.9785
-0.1568
-0.1511
-0.1434
-0.1334

So to identify the largest index and then value, I have to allow for negative values of DD as above - hence the abs below.

This was my 1st attempt, but it diodnt work as the try part didn'f fail.

           m=max(abs(DD(:)));    % Need the abs to allow for any sign of data
             try
                idx=find(DD==m)
             catch
                idx=find(DD==-m)
             end  
             

So I tried this which did work: Is there a better way

             idx=find(DD==m)
             [sy,sx]=size(idx)
             if sy==0
                 idx=find(DD==-m)  
             end
             
          

I then want to list out the highest say 4 values of the differences DD, but again as the signs can be =ve or -ve, I can use the normal sort with ascend / descend, how to do this?

This was my attempt:

             X=data(idx,1); 
             Y=data(idx,col);            
             sortedDiff=sort(DD,'descend');
             sortedDiff(1:5,1)

[Jason]

To my later added 2nd part of the question, stephen kindly pointed me to:

[W,Y2] = maxk(DD,5,ComparisonMethod="abs")

Answer 1

[Alan Stevens]

Try

[M, I] = max(abs(DD))
M = DD(I)