Exponentiation can be used by using the builtin pow
-function or the **
operator:
2 ** 3 # 8
pow(2, 3) # 8
For most (all in Python 2.x) arithmetic operations the result's type will be that of the wider operand. This is not true for **
; the following cases are exceptions from this rule:
Base: int
, exponent: int < 0
:
2 ** -3
# Out: 0.125 (result is a float)
This is also valid for Python 3.x.
Before Python 2.2.0, this raised a ValueError
.
Base: int < 0
or float < 0
, exponent: float != int
(-2) ** (0.5) # also (-2.) ** (0.5)
# Out: (8.659560562354934e-17+1.4142135623730951j) (result is complex)
Before python 3.0.0, this raised a ValueError
.
The operator
module contains two functions that are equivalent to the **
-operator:
import operator
operator.pow(4, 2) # 16
operator.__pow__(4, 3) # 64
or one could directly call the __pow__
method:
val1, val2 = 4, 2
val1.__pow__(val2) # 16
val2.__rpow__(val1) # 16
# in-place power operation isn't supported by immutable classes like int, float, complex:
# val1.__ipow__(val2)