Write a function that takes (x, y) and return x to the power of y WITHOUT Loops [closed]

Question

This is a really neat short challenge.

Write a function or a procedure that takes two parameters, x and y and returns the result of xy WITHOUT using loops, or built in power functions.

The winner is the most creative solution, and will be chosen based on the highest number of votes after 3 days.

Answer 1

APL (7)

{×/⍵/⍺}

Left argument is base, right argument is exponent, e.g.:

     5 {×/⍵/⍺} 6
15625

Explanation:

• ⍵/⍺ replicates ⍺ ⍵ times, e.g. 5 {⍵/⍺} 6 -> 5 5 5 5 5 5
• ×/ takes the product, e.g. ×/5 5 5 5 5 5 -> 5×5×5×5×5×5 -> 15625

Answer 2

C#: Floating point exponents

OK, this solution is quite fragile. You can easily break it by throwing ridiculously huge numbers like 6 at it. But it works beautifully for things like DoublePower(1.5, 3.4), and doesn't use recursion!

    static double IntPower(double x, int y)
    {
        return Enumerable.Repeat(x, y).Aggregate((product, next) => product * next);
    }

    static double Factorial(int x)
    {
        return Enumerable.Range(1, x).Aggregate<int, double>(1.0, (factorial, next) => factorial * next);
    }

    static double Exp(double x)
    {
        return Enumerable.Range(1, 100).
            Aggregate<int, double>(1.0, (sum, next) => sum + IntPower(x, next) / Factorial(next));
    }

    static double Log(double x)
    {
        if (x > -1.0 && x < 1.0)
        {
            return Enumerable.Range(1, 100).
                Aggregate<int, double>(0.0, (sum, next) =>
                    sum + ((next % 2 == 0 ? -1.0 : 1.0) / next * IntPower(x - 1.0, next)));
        }
        else
        {
            return Enumerable.Range(1, 100).
                Aggregate<int, double>(0.0, (sum, next) =>
                    sum + 1.0 / next * IntPower((x - 1) / x, next));
        }
    } 

    static double DoublePower(double x, double y)
    {
        return Exp(y * Log(x));
    } 

Answer 3

C++

How about some template meta programming? It bends what little rules there were, but it's worth a shot:

#include <iostream>


template <int pow>
class tmp_pow {
public:
    constexpr tmp_pow(float base) :
        value(base * tmp_pow<pow-1>(base).value)
    {
    }
    const float value;
};

template <>
class tmp_pow<0> {
public:
    constexpr tmp_pow(float base) :
        value(1)
    {
    }
    const float value;
};

int main(void)
{
    tmp_pow<5> power_thirst(2.0f);
    std::cout << power_thirst.value << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

Answer 4

Python

def power(x,y):
    return eval(((str(x)+"*")*y)[:-1])

Doesn't work for noninteger powers.

Answer 5

Haskell - 25 chars

f _ 0=1
f x y=x*f x (y-1)

Following Marinus' APL version:

f x y = product $ take y $ repeat x

With mniip's comment and whitespace removed, 27 chars:

f x y=product$replicate y x

Answer 6

Python

If y is a positive integer

def P(x,y):
    return reduce(lambda a,b:a*b,[x]*y)

Answer 7

JavaScript (ES6), 31

// Testable in Firefox 28
f=(x,y)=>eval('x*'.repeat(y)+1)

Usage:

> f(2, 0)
1
> f(2, 16)
65536

Explanation:

The above function builds an expression which multiply x y times then evaluates it.

Answer 8

I'm surprised to see that nobody wrote a solution with the Y Combinator, yet... thus:

Python2

Y = lambda f: (lambda x: x(x))(lambda y: f(lambda v: y(y)(v)))
pow = Y(lambda r: lambda (n,c): 1 if not c else n*r((n, c-1)))

No loops, No vector/list operations and No (explicit) recursion!

>>> pow((2,0))
1
>>> pow((2,3))
8
>>> pow((3,3))
27

Answer 9

C# : 45

Works for integers only:

int P(int x,int y){return y==1?x:x*P(x,y-1);}

Answer 10

bash & sed

No numbers, no loops, just an embarrasingly dangerous glob abuse. Preferably run in an empty directory to be safe. Shell script:

#!/bin/bash
rm -f xxxxx*
eval touch $(printf xxxxx%$2s | sed "s/ /{1..$1}/g")
ls xxxxx* | wc -l
rm -f xxxxx*

Answer 11

Javascript

function f(x,y){return ("1"+Array(y+1)).match(/[\,1]/g).reduce(function(l,c){return l*x;});}

Uses regular expressions to create an array of size y+1 whose first element is 1. Then, reduce the array with multiplication to compute power. When y=0, the result is the first element of the array, which is 1.

Admittedly, my goal was i) not use recursion, ii) make it obscure.

Answer 12

Mathematica

f[x_, y_] := Root[x, 1/y]

Probably cheating to use the fact that x^(1/y) = y√x

Answer 13

Golfscript, 8 characters (including I/O)

~])*{*}*

Explanation:

TLDR: another "product of repeated array" solution.

The expected input is two numbers, e.g. 2 5. The stack starts with one item, the string "2 5".

Code     - Explanation                                             - stack
                                                                   - "2 5"
~        - pop "2 5" and eval into the integers 2 5                - 2 5        
]        - put all elements on stack into an array                 - [2 5]
)        - uncons from the right                                   - [2] 5
*        - repeat array                                            - [2 2 2 2 2]
{*}      - create a block that multiplies two elements             - [2 2 2 2 2] {*}
*        - fold the array using the block                          - 32

Answer 14

Ruby

class Symbol
  define_method(:**) {|x| eval x }
end

p(:****[$*[0]].*(:****$*[1]).*('*'))

Sample use:

$ ruby exp.rb 5 3
125
$ ruby exp.rb 0.5 3
0.125

This ultimately is the same as several previous answers: creates a y-length array every element of which is x, then takes the product. It's just gratuitously obfuscated to make it look like it's using the forbidden ** operator.

Answer 15

JavaScript

function f(x,y){return y--?x*f(x,y):1;}

Answer 16

C, exponentiation by squaring

int power(int a, int b){
    if (b==0) return 1;
    if (b==1) return a;
    if (b%2==0) return power (a*a,b/2);
    return a*power(a*a,(b-1)/2);
}

golfed version in 46 bytes (thanks ugoren!)

p(a,b){return b<2?b?a:1:p(a*a,b/2)*(b&1?a:1);}

should be faster than all the other recursive answers so far o.O

slightly slower version in 45 bytes

p(a,b){return b<2?b?a:1:p(a*a,b/2)*p(a,b&1);}

Answer 17

Haskell - 55

pow x y=fix(\r a i->if i>=y then a else r(a*x)(i+1))1 0

There's already a shorter Haskell entry, but I thought it would be interesting to write one that takes advantage of the fix function, as defined in Data.Function. Used as follows (in the Repl for the sake of ease):

ghci> let pow x y=fix(\r a i->if i>=y then a else r(a*x)(i+1))1 0
ghci> pow 5 3
125

Answer 18

Q

9 chars. Generates array with y instances of x and takes the product.

{prd y#x}

Can explicitly cast to float for larger range given int/long x:

{prd y#9h$x}

Answer 19

Similar logic as many others, in PHP:

<?=array_product(array_fill(0,$argv[2],$argv[1]));

Run it with php file.php 5 3 to get 5^3

Answer 20

I'm not sure how many upvotes I can expect for this, but I found it somewhat peculiar that I actually had to write that very function today. And I'm pretty sure this is the first time any .SE site sees this language (website doesn't seem very helpful atm).

ABS

def Rat pow(Rat x, Int y) =
    if y < 0 then
        1 / pow(x, -y)
    else case y {
        0 => 1;
        _ => x * pow(x, y-1);
    };

Works for negative exponents and rational bases.

I highlighted it in Java syntax, because that's what I'm currently doing when I'm working with this language. Looks alright.

Answer 21

Pascal

The challenge did not specify the type or range of x and y, therefore I figure the following Pascal function follows all the given rules:

{ data type for a single bit: can only be 0 or 1 }
type
  bit = 0..1;

{ calculate the power of two bits, using the convention that 0^0 = 1 }
function bitpower(bit x, bit y): bit;
  begin
    if y = 0
      then bitpower := 1
      else bitpower := x
  end;

No loop, no built-in power or exponentiation function, not even recursion or arithmetics!

Answer 22

J - 5 or 4 bytes

Exactly the same as marinus' APL answer.

For x^y:

*/@$~

For y^x:

*/@$

For example:

   5 */@$~ 6
15625
   6 */@$ 5
15625

x $~ y creates a list of x repeated y times (same as y $ x

*/ x is the product function, */ 1 2 3 -> 1 * 2 * 3

Answer 23

Python

from math import sqrt

def pow(x, y):
    if y == 0:
        return 1
    elif y >= 1:
        return x * pow(x, y - 1)
    elif y > 0:
        y *= 2
        if y >= 1:
            return sqrt(x) * sqrt(pow(x, y % 1))
        else:
            return sqrt(pow(x, y % 1))
    else:
        return 1.0 / pow(x, -y)

Answer 24

Javascript

With tail recursion, works if y is a positive integer

function P(x,y,z){z=z||1;return y?P(x,y-1,x*z):z}

Answer 25

Bash

Everyone knows bash can do whizzy map-reduce type stuff ;-)

#!/bin/bash

x=$1
reduce () {
    ((a*=$x))
}
a=1
mapfile -n$2 -c1 -Creduce < <(yes)
echo $a

---

If thats too trolly for you then there's this:

#!/bin/bash

echo $(( $( yes $1 | head -n$2 | paste -s -d'*' ) ))

Answer 26

C

Yet another recursive exponentiation by squaring answer in C, but they do differ (this uses a shift instead of division, is slightly shorter and recurses one more time than the other):

e(x,y){return y?(y&1?x:1)*e(x*x,y>>1):1;}

Answer 27

Mathematica

This works for integers.

f[x_, y_] := Times@@Table[x, {y}]

Example

f[5,3]

125

---

How it works

Table makes a list of y x's. Times takes the product of all of them.`

---

Another way to achieve the same end:

#~Product~{i,1,#2}&

Example

#~Product~{i, 1, #2} & @@ {5, 3}

125

Answer 28

Windows Batch

Like most of the other answers here, it uses recursion.

@echo off
set y=%2
:p
if %y%==1 (
set z=%1
goto :eof
) else (
    set/a"y-=1"
    call :p %1
    set/a"z*=%1"
    goto :eof
)

x^y is stored in the environment variable z.

Answer 29

perl

Here's a tail recursive perl entry. Usage is echo $X,$Y | foo.pl:

($x,$y) = split/,/, <>;
sub a{$_*=$x;--$y?a():$_}
$_=1;
print a

Or for a more functional-type approach, how about:

($x,$y) = split/,/, <>;
$t=1; map { $t *= $x } (1..$y);
print $t

Answer 30

Python

def getRootOfY(x,y):
   return x**y 

def printAnswer():
   print "answer is ",getRootOfY(5,3)
printAnswer()

answer =125

I am not sure if this is against the requirements, but if not here is my attempt.