O(log N)的解决方案在Swift…

// Time complexity is O(log N)
func power(_ base: Int, _ exp: Int) -> Int { 

    // 1. If the exponent is 1 then return the number (e.g a^1 == a)
    //Time complexity O(1)
    if exp == 1 { 
        return base
    }

    // 2. Calculate the value of the number raised to half of the exponent. This will be used to calculate the final answer by squaring the result (e.g a^2n == (a^n)^2 == a^n * a^n). The idea is that we can do half the amount of work by obtaining a^n and multiplying the result by itself to get a^2n
    //Time complexity O(log N)
    let tempVal = power(base, exp/2) 

    // 3. If the exponent was odd then decompose the result in such a way that it allows you to divide the exponent in two (e.g. a^(2n+1) == a^1 * a^2n == a^1 * a^n * a^n). If the eponent is even then the result must be the base raised to half the exponent squared (e.g. a^2n == a^n * a^n = (a^n)^2).
    //Time complexity O(1)
    return (exp % 2 == 1 ? base : 1) * tempVal * tempVal 

}

下面是Java中的方法

private int ipow(int base, int exp)
{
    int result = 1;
    while (exp != 0)
    {
        if ((exp & 1) == 1)
            result *= base;
        exp >>= 1;
        base *= base;
    }

    return result;
}

请注意，平方求幂并不是最优的方法。这可能是一种适用于所有指数值的通用方法，但对于特定的指数值，可能有更好的序列，需要更少的乘法。

例如，如果你想计算x^15，用平方求幂的方法会给你:

x^15 = (x^7)*(x^7)*x 
x^7 = (x^3)*(x^3)*x 
x^3 = x*x*x

这一共有6次乘法。

事实证明，这可以通过“仅仅”5次加法链幂运算来完成。

n*n = n^2
n^2*n = n^3
n^3*n^3 = n^6
n^6*n^6 = n^12
n^12*n^3 = n^15

没有有效的算法来找到这个最优的乘法序列。从维基百科:

The problem of finding the shortest addition chain cannot be solved by dynamic programming, because it does not satisfy the assumption of optimal substructure. That is, it is not sufficient to decompose the power into smaller powers, each of which is computed minimally, since the addition chains for the smaller powers may be related (to share computations). For example, in the shortest addition chain for a¹⁵ above, the subproblem for a⁶ must be computed as (a³)² since a³ is re-used (as opposed to, say, a⁶ = a²(a²)², which also requires three multiplies).

如果你想得到一个整数的2的幂，最好使用shift选项:

Pow(2,5)可以替换为1<<5

这样效率更高。

如果您在编译时知道指数(并且它是一个整数)，您可以使用模板展开循环。这可以更有效，但我想在这里演示基本原则:

#include <iostream>

template<unsigned long N>
unsigned long inline exp_unroll(unsigned base) {
    return base * exp_unroll<N-1>(base);
}

我们使用模板特化来终止递归:

template<>
unsigned long inline exp_unroll<1>(unsigned base) {
    return base;
}

指数需要在运行时已知，

int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
    std::cout << argv[1] <<"**5= " << exp_unroll<5>(atoi(argv[1])) << ;std::endl;
}

另一个实现(在Java中)。可能不是最有效的解决方案，但迭代次数与指数解相同。

public static long pow(long base, long exp){        
    if(exp ==0){
        return 1;
    }
    if(exp ==1){
        return base;
    }

    if(exp % 2 == 0){
        long half = pow(base, exp/2);
        return half * half;
    }else{
        long half = pow(base, (exp -1)/2);
        return base * half * half;
    }       
}