I cant figure out how to retrieve the data from a different tab/sheet i need without ABS but I want to retrieve it if its negative or positive not just positive. Here is how I have it set up.

I have one tab/sheet with column A containing variables like 1L, 1R, 2L, 2R, etc. Then in column B-Z there are numbers like .024, -.50, 1.5, -3.5, ect.

In a second tab/sheet i'm trying to first reference which row I want by matching the 1L, 2L data in column A. There is a lot of data and so there are multiple cells that will have 1L or 2L or others. Once I find all the cells with 1L for example, I want to then look at column B and retrieve the cell with the max value whether its positive or negative. The data sheet would look like this: Trying to make it look like an excel sheet.

A | b | c, etc
____________________
1l | .25 |
2l | -.50 |
1l | 1.5 |
4R | -2.5 |
5r | -.4 |
1l | -.1.7 |
2l | 1.1 |

The sheet im pulling data to would look like this:

A | B
_____________
1L |?????
1R |
2L |
2R |
3L |
3R |


In the ??? cell i want to search the first sheet and find all rows with 1L then return the largest value in column B. In this example I want the end result to return -1.7 because its the largest absolute number in the 1L catagory.

So far I've only got this far. I can get the number but its absolute only. I want it to be positive or negative depending on which is further from 0. If it helps to know I'm working with data that fits in 2394 rows by 30 colums so the formula below is with that data range.

What I have so far:
=MAX(ABS(IF('sheet 1'!$A$1:$A$2394=A1,'sheet 1'!$B$1:$B$2394)))



Thanks and sorry if im missing a better explanation im new to excel

Kevin