Researchers dealing with real functions f (.) ? L-1 (a, b) are often challenged with technical difficulties on trying to prove statements involving the positive f (+) (.) and negative f(- )(.) parts of these functions. Indeed, the set of points where f (.) is positive (resp. negative) is just Lebesgue measurable, and in general these two sets may both have positive measure inside each nonempty open subinterval of (a, b). To remedy this situation, we regularize these sets through open sets. More precisely, for each zero-average f (.) ? L-1 (a, b), we construct, explicitly, a series of functions L1 (a, b) - in such a way that, for each i ? { 0, 1, 2, ... }, there exist ? two disjoint open sets where f (i) (.)= 0 a.e. and respectively, while f i (.) = 0 a.e. elsewhere. Moreover, its primitive ft f (.) becomes the sum of a strongly convergent series of nice AC functions. Applications to calculus of variations & optimal control appear in our next papers. ? f i (.) having sum f (.) - a.e. and in ? f i (.) = 0 a.e., resp ec-