PHP pow() Function

Definition and Usage

The pow () function is used to compute power of a certain number. It returns x^y calculation, also termed as x raised to y. PHP also provides "**" asexponentiation operator.

So, pow(x,y) returns x^y which is same as x**y

Syntax

pow ( number $base , number $exp ) : number

Parameters

Return Values

PHP pow() function returns base raised to power of exp. If both arguments are non-negative integers,the result is returned as integer, otherwise it is returned as a float.

PHP Version

This function is available in PHP versions 4.x, PHP 5.x as well as PHP 7.x.

Example

Following example calculates 10² using pow() function

<?php
   echo "pow(10,2) = " . pow(10,2);
   echo " using ** operator " . 10**2;
?>

Output

This will produce following result −

pow(10,2) = 100 using ** operator 100

Example

Any number raised to 0 results in 1. This is verified by following example −

<?php
   $x=10;
   $y=0;
   echo "pow(" . $x, "," . $y . ")=". pow($x,$y);
?>

Output

This will produce following result −

pow(10,0)=1

Example

Following example computes square root of 100 using pow() function;

<?php
   $x=100;
   $y=0.5;
   echo "pow(" . $x, "," . $y . ")=". pow($x,$y) . "\n";
   echo "using sqrt() function : ". sqrt(100);
?>

Output

This will produce following result −

pow(100,0.5)=10
using sqrt() function : 10

Example

This example shows uses pow() function in calculation of area of circle.−

<?php
   $radius=5;
   echo "radius = " . $radius . " area = " . M_PI*pow(5,2);
?>

Output

This will produce following result −

radius = 5 area = 78.539816339745