How do you do *integer* exponentiation in C#?

Question

The built-in Math.Pow() function in .NET raises a double base to a double exponent and returns a double result.

W

Answer 1

My favorite solution to this problem is a classic divide and conquer recursive solution. It is actually faster then multiplying n times as it reduces the number of multiplies in half each time.

public static int Power(int x, int n)
{
  // Basis
  if (n == 0)
    return 1;
  else if (n == 1)
    return x;

  // Induction
  else if (n % 2 == 1)
    return x * Power(x*x, n/2);
  return Power(x*x, n/2);
}

Note: this doesn't check for overflow or negative n.