Operator ^ (Exponentiate)
Raises a numeric expression to some power
result = lhs ^ rhs
lhs
Returns the exponentiation of a base expression raised to some exponent.
Operator ^ (Exponentiate) returns the result of a base expression (lhs) raised to some exponent expression (rhs). ^ works with double float numbers only, operands of other types will be converted into double before performing the exponentiation. Exponent of a fractional value (1/n) is the same as taking nth root from the base, for example, 2 ^ (1/3) is the cube root of 2.
Neither of the operands are modified in any way.
Note: this operation is not guaranteed to be fully accurate, and there may be some inaccuracy in the least significant bits of the number. This is particularly noticeable when the result is expected to be an exact number: in these cases, you may find the result is out by a very small amount. For this reason, you should never assume that an exponentiation expression will be exactly equal to the value you expect.
This also means that you should be wary of using rounding methods such as Int and Fix on the result: if you expect the result to be an integer value, then there's a chance that it might be slightly lower, and will round down to a value that is one less than you would expect.
This operator can be overloaded for user-defined types.
Output:
Syntax
Usage
result = lhs ^ rhs
Parameters
lhs
The left-hand side base expression.
rhsThe right-hand side exponent expression.
Return Value
Returns the exponentiation of a base expression raised to some exponent.
Description
Operator ^ (Exponentiate) returns the result of a base expression (lhs) raised to some exponent expression (rhs). ^ works with double float numbers only, operands of other types will be converted into double before performing the exponentiation. Exponent of a fractional value (1/n) is the same as taking nth root from the base, for example, 2 ^ (1/3) is the cube root of 2.
Neither of the operands are modified in any way.
Note: this operation is not guaranteed to be fully accurate, and there may be some inaccuracy in the least significant bits of the number. This is particularly noticeable when the result is expected to be an exact number: in these cases, you may find the result is out by a very small amount. For this reason, you should never assume that an exponentiation expression will be exactly equal to the value you expect.
This also means that you should be wary of using rounding methods such as Int and Fix on the result: if you expect the result to be an integer value, then there's a chance that it might be slightly lower, and will round down to a value that is one less than you would expect.
This operator can be overloaded for user-defined types.
Example
Dim As Double n
Input "Please enter a positive number: ", n
Print
Print n;" squared is "; n ^ 2
Print "The fifth root of "; n;" is "; n ^ 0.2
Sleep
Input "Please enter a positive number: ", n
Print n;" squared is "; n ^ 2
Print "The fifth root of "; n;" is "; n ^ 0.2
Sleep
Output:
Please enter a positive number: 3.4 3.4 squared is 11.56 The fifth root of 3.4 is 1.27730844458754
Dialect Differences
- In the -lang qb dialect, this operator cannot be overloaded.
Differences from QB
- None
See also
