Building own recursive power function

Question

I'm pretty new to python as a whole so apologies, but i'm tasked with building a standalone power function for exponents upto 4.

So far i have;

def power(x,n):
    if(n==1):
        return x
    if(n==2):
        return square(x)
    if(n==3):
        return cube(x)
    if(n==4):
        return hypercube(x)

with the square, cube and hypercube functions being;

def square(x):
    return x*x

def cube(x):
    return x*x*x

def hypercube(x):
    return x*x*x*x

I'm trying to replace the square, cube and hypercube functions with calls to the power function itself, but i'm having trouble understanding recursive call. I tried the following thinking you just have to call from within directly to the end result. I'm struggling just being able to visualise this

def power(x,n):
    if(n==1):
        return x
    if(n==2):
        return power(x^)
    if(n==3):
        return power(x^n)
    if(n==4):
        return power(x^n)

blue_note blue_note · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-22T12:50:07

You can use direct recursion like so

def power(x, n):
    if n == 0:
        return 1
    return x * power(x, n - 1)

Building own recursive power function

1 Answers