This should be fairly simple to fix.

Okay, will somebody tell me what is wrong with this code?

Code:

#include <iostream.h>

typedef unsigned short int USHORT;
typedef unsigned long int ULONG;

ULONG powerFunc(USHORT, USHORT, USHORT);

int main()
{
  USHORT num, orignum, pow; ULONG ans;
  cout<<"Enter a number and a power:\t"; cin>>num;
  cout<<"\t\t\t\t"; cin>>pow;
  orignum=num;
  ans=powerFunc(num, orignum, pow);
  cout<<"\n\n"<<num<<" to the power of "<<pow<<" equals "<<ans<<".\n\n";
  return 0;
}

ULONG powerFunc(USHORT num, USHORT orignum, USHORT pow)
{
  cout<<"num="<<num<<" orignum="<<orignum<<" pow="<<pow<<"\n\n";
  if (pow!=1)
  {
    num=num*orignum;
    pow--;
    powerFunc(num, orignum, pow);
  }
  cout<<"num to return="<<num;
  return num;
}

Here is the output I get:

Code:

Enter a number and a power:     2
                                4
num=2 orignum=2 pow=4

num=4 orignum=2 pow=3

num=8 orignum=2 pow=2

num=16 orignum=2 pow=1

num to return=16num to return=16num to return=8num to return=4

2 to the power of 4 equals 4.

I've been messing with it for about an hour with no results. I am guessing it has something to do with local variables.

Hi,

I think your powerfunc is totally wrong. I suppose you want to do some 2^4 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2.

So you should be doing

Code:

ULONG powerFunc(USHORT num, USHORT pow)
{
     if (pow < 1) return 1;
     else return num * powerFunc(num, --pow);
}

Edit : By the way in your original code num will always be 2 and orignum will always be 2 so num = num *orignum will always be 2 * 2 = 4.

Thanks a lot, that works perfectly.

nitpicking:

Code:

#include<iostream.h>

should be

Code:

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

it's more standards-compliant...