Power of a Number in C

In this article, we will learn how to write a C program to calculate the power of a number (xⁿ). We may assume that x and n are small and overflow doesn’t happen.

C Program To Calculate the Power of a Number

A simple solution to calculate the power would be to multiply x exactly n times. We can do that by using a simple for or while loop.

C

// C program for the above approach
#include <stdio.h>

// Naive iterative solution to
// calculate pow(x, n)
long power(int x, unsigned n)
{
    // Initialize result to 1
    long long pow = 1;

    // Multiply x for n times
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
        pow = pow * x;
    }

    return pow;
}

// Driver code
int main(void)
{

    int x = 2;
    unsigned n = 3;

    // Function call
    int result = power(x, n);
    printf("%d", result);

    return 0;
}

Output

8

Complexity Analysis

• Time Complexity: O(n), to iterate n times.
• Auxiliary Space: O(1)

Please visit the article Write the Program to Find pow(x,y) to know about more methods to calculate the power of a number.