Question

 {
System.out.println (base + " to the " + i + " power =  " + 
                          power(base, i));   
}

    public static double power(double baseNum, int exp) 
    {
        if (exp == 0)
            return 1;
        else
            return baseNum * power(baseNum, --exp); 
    }  

Quick question, the method above called “power” somehow returns the solution to an answer when it returns “1”. So if I passed the parameters to calculate 2 ^ 5, RETURN 1 somehow turns into 32.0. What exactly is going on here? how does “1” become 32.0?

Answer 1

else
    return baseNum * power(baseNum, --exp);

That code right there. When one of the power functions is returning 1, it actually was called by this. So it’s going to be like:

return baseNum * power(baseNum, --exp);

And the power returned 1, so:

return baseNum * 1;

And baseNum would be 32.0 in that case.

Recursion.

Better explanation: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=dHTnSPuY (my comment begin with an @ sign)