Thread: Create a function that returns a higher power of a number each time - C

Hello everyone and thank you for taking your time to read this post.


I came across a rather confusing problem for me. I have been given a prototype of the function I am not allowed to change and it has to perform the following task:

If we call the function three times with the number 2 as parameter, it should return 2,4,8(the exponents increase with each call). However, if we call it with another number, the exponent resets and starts back from one. For example: When we call the function three times with number 2 as the parameter, it returns.2,4,8. But after that, if we call it with a different number(say 5) the function should return 5,25,125. and so on. To summarize, the exponent count has to reset to 1 each time the function is called with a different number.

Now here comes the catch: here's the prototype:

Code:

double power(double x)

Note that I can't use pointers because I can't send a pointer as a parameter. I managed to do something like this:

Code:

double power(double x) {
  static int exponent = 1;
  return pow(x,exponent++);
}

But how do I reset the exponent back to 1 when the function is called with another number? And are static and global variables the only way to do this?


Thanks once again!