CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javamethodsrecursion
Matt Andrzejczuk
Matt Andrzejczuk

Reputation: 2066

recursive method for exponent of a fixed power

Is it possible to create a recursive method that takes a single int as a parameter and returns the passed int to the power of 10?

this is what I have so far, but I get StackOverFlow error:

public static int exponent(int baseNum) {                       

   return baseNum * exponent(baseNum); 

}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1981

Answers (1)

slashingweapon
slashingweapon

Reputation: 11317

You forgot to tell the recursive function when to stop recursing. It'll just go forever, which is why you get a stack error.

public static int exponent(int baseNum, int exp) {
   if (exp == 0)
       return 1;
   else
       return baseNum * exponent(baseNum, --exp); 
}

Now you can get 32^10 by calling:

exponent(32, 10);

And if you want a specialized function to raise a number to the power of ten then you can overload the exponent method:

public static int exponent(int baseNum) {
   return exponent(baseNum, 10); 
}

Only works with exponent values >= 0, of course.

Upvotes: 2

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