Golang power calculation using math.Pow() function


GO

Author: Tuan Nguyen
Reviewer: Deepak Prasad

Getting started with math.Pow() function

Basic mathematical functions and constants are integrated into the Go language, allowing users to perform operations on numbers with the help of the math package. In this turorial we will concentrate on golang power calculation using math.Pow() function and other possible methods.

You can find the base x exponential of y (x**y) with the help of Pow() function provided by the math package. Below is the signature of the function. It takes input as two float arguments and returns a float:

func Pow(x, y float64) float64: Pow returns x**n, the base-x exponential of y.

This same function can be used to calculate the square or cube of a number. Just pass the second argument y as 2 in case of square and 3 in case of cube. Special cases are (in order):

Pow(x, ±0) = 1 for any x
Pow(1, y) = 1 for any y
Pow(x, 1) = x for any x
Pow(NaN, y) = NaN
Pow(x, NaN) = NaN
Pow(±0, y) = ±Inf for y an odd integer < 0
Pow(±0, -Inf) = +Inf
Pow(±0, +Inf) = +0
Pow(±0, y) = +Inf for finite y < 0 and not an odd integer
Pow(±0, y) = ±0 for y an odd integer > 0
Pow(±0, y) = +0 for finite y > 0 and not an odd integer
Pow(-1, ±Inf) = 1
Pow(x, +Inf) = +Inf for |x| > 1
Pow(x, -Inf) = +0 for |x| > 1
Pow(x, +Inf) = +0 for |x| < 1
Pow(x, -Inf) = +Inf for |x| < 1
Pow(+Inf, y) = +Inf for y > 0
Pow(+Inf, y) = +0 for y < 0
Pow(-Inf, y) = Pow(-0, -y)
Pow(x, y) = NaN for finite x < 0 and finite non-integer y

 

Example 1: Use Pow() function to calculate power of integer, float

In this example, we will perform some simple exponential functions with integers and float with Pow().

package main

import (
	"fmt"
        // import math package
	"math"
)

func main() {
	// calculate 2^9
	result := math.Pow(2, 9)
	fmt.Println(result)

	// float inputs
	res = math.Pow(4.5, 2)
	fmt.Println(result)

	// special case
	res = math.Pow(1520, 0)
	fmt.Println(result)
}

Output:

$ go run main.go
512
20.25
1

 

Example 2: Implement own function to calculate Pow(x,y)

1. Implement Pow(x,y) based on Math.Pow()

In this example, we will discuss one problem when using Pow() with integers in Go and how to implement Pow(x,y) function yourself based on Math.Pow(). If we change the code in example 1 to:

	// calculate pow of integers inputs
	a := 4
	b := 10
	result := math.Pow(a, b)
	fmt.Println(result)

Output:

.main.go:13:18: cannot use a (variable of type int) as type float64 in argument to math.Pow
.main.go:13:21: cannot use b (variable of type int) as type float64 in argument to math.Pow

The problem is our inputs are integers while the math.Pow() takes float64 as inputs. You can read more about how to cast float64 to int64. We can write our own function to solve this problem:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"math"
)

func main() {
	//calculate pow of integers inputs
	a := 4
	b := 10
	result := calPowInt(a, b)
	fmt.Println(result)
}

func calPowInt(x, y int) int {
	return int(math.Pow(float64(x), float64(y)))
}

Output:

$ go run main.go
1048576

 

2. Another way to do Pow(x,y)

We have several ways to write Pow(x, n) function for integers x and n. We will use recursion in this example:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	//calculate pow of integers inputs
	a := 4
	b := 10
	result := calPowIntRecur(a, b)
	fmt.Println(result)
}

// Assumption that n >= 0
func calPowIntRecur(x, n int) int {
	if n == 0 {
		return 1
	}
	if n == 1 {
		return x
	}
        // recursion here
	y := calPowIntRecur(x, n/2)
	if n%2 == 0 {
		return y * y
	}
	return x * y * y
}

Output:

$ go run main.go
1048576

 

Summary

math package of GO provides a Pow() function that can be used to calculate x to the power y. It is powerful but in the case of integer inputs, we can write our own functions to avoid errors.

 

References

https://pkg.go.dev/math#Pow

 

Tuan Nguyen

Tuan Nguyen

He is proficient in Golang, Python, Java, MongoDB, Selenium, Spring Boot, Kubernetes, Scrapy, API development, Docker, Data Scraping, PrimeFaces, Linux, Data Structures, and Data Mining. With expertise spanning these technologies, he develops robust solutions and implements efficient data processing and management strategies across various projects and platforms. You can connect with him on his LinkedIn profile.

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