How do you do *integer* exponentiation in C#?

Question

The built-in Math.Pow() function in .NET raises a double base to a double exponent and returns a double result.

What's the best way to do the same with integers?

Added: It seems that one can just cast Math.Pow() result to (int), but will this always produce the correct number and no rounding errors?

Answer 1

A pretty fast one might be something like this:

int IntPow(int x, uint pow)
{
    int ret = 1;
    while ( pow != 0 )
    {
        if ( (pow & 1) == 1 )
            ret *= x;
        x *= x;
        pow >>= 1;
    }
    return ret;
}

Note that this does not allow negative powers. I'll leave that as an exercise to you. :)

Added: Oh yes, almost forgot - also add overflow/underflow checking, or you might be in for a few nasty surprises down the road.