I tried to write a function for fast power in scala, but I keep getting java.lang.StackOverflowError. I think it has something to do with two slashes that use in the third line when I recursively called this function for n/2. Can someone explain why is this happening
def fast_power(x:Double, n:Int):Double = {
if(n % 2 == 0 && n > 1)
fast_power(x, n/2) * fast_power(x, n /2)
else if(n % 2 == 1 && n > 1)
x * fast_power(x, n - 1)
else if(n == 0) 1
else 1 / fast_power(x, n)
}
Your code doesn't terminate, because there was no case for n = 1
. Moreover, your fast_power
has linear runtime.
If you write it down like this instead:
def fast_power(x:Double, n:Int):Double = {
if(n < 0) {
1 / fast_power(x, -n)
} else if (n == 0) {
1.0
} else if (n == 1) {
x
} else if (n % 2 == 0) {
val s = fast_power(x, n / 2)
s * s
} else {
val s = fast_power(x, n / 2)
x * s * s
}
}
then it is immediately obvious that the runtime is logarithmic, because n
is at least halved in every recursive invocation.
I don't have any strong opinions on if
-vs- match
, so I just sorted all the cases in ascending order.
Prefer the match
construct instead of multiple if/else blocks. This will help you isolate the problem you have (wrong recursive call), and write more understandable recursive functions. Always put the termination conditions first.
def fastPower(x:Double, m:Int):Double = m match {
case 0 => 1
case 1 => x
case n if n%2 == 0 => fastPower(x, n/2) * fastPower(x, n/2)
case n => x * fastPower(x, n - 1)
}
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