Re: [Tutor] Question on how to do exponents

[Dave Angel]

On 02/07/2012 01:57 PM, Sarma Tangirala wrote:
On 8 February 2012 00:01, Steven D'Aprano<st...@pearwood.info>  wrote:

Sarma Tangirala wrote:

  Is is better to use pow() against **?

Advantages of **

- it is shorter to type x**y vs pow(x, y)
- being an operator, it is slightly faster than calling a function
- you can't monkey-patch it

Disadvantages of **

- being an operator, you can't directly use it as a function-object
- it can't take three arguments
- hard to google for "**"
- you can't monkey-patch it

Advantages of pow()

- it is a function, so you can pass it around as an object
- three argument form
- easy to call help(pow) to see documentation
- easy to google for "pow"
- can be monkey-patched

Disadvantages of pow()

- a tiny bit slower due to the function call
- slightly longer to type
- can be monkey-patched


Weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each, and make the call which
is better for you.

(My preference is to use the ** operator.)


A simple "function call" argument would have done! :D Thanks for the survey!

Anyway, I was wondering about this, if internally pow() actually uses **. :P


I have no idea, but I'd assume so, unless there's a 3rd argument.   At 
that point, the algorithm must change drastically.

--

DaveA

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