Connecting a 7 segment display....

Positive = Anode, Negative = Cathode.

And if it was me, I'd use the CAT4016 chip to drive common anode ones. If you want to drive them directly from the arduino there's no reason you can't (as long as you follow a few simple rules so you don't burn out your I/O pins). Try googling for "7 segment common anode arduino" and see what it throws up.