What does for i = 1 ; i <= power ; 1 += 1) { mean? - tags

Question

Sorry for pretty basic question.
Just starting out. Using flowgorithm to write code that gives out a calculation of exponential numbers.
The code to do it is:
function exponential(base, power) {
var answer;
answer = 1;
var i;
for (i = 1 ; i <= power ; i+= 1) {
answer = answer * base;
}
return answer;
f
then it loops up to the number of power. And i just understand that in the flowgorithm chart but i dont understand the code for it.
what does each section of the for statement mean?
i = 1 to power, i just need help understanding how it is written? What is the 1+= 1 bit?
Thanks.

Answer 1

The exponential function will take in 2 parameters, base and power.
You can create this function and call (fire) it when ever it is needed like so exponential(2,4).
The for (i = 1; 1 <= power; i+=1) is somewhat of an ugly for loop.
for loops traditionaly take three parameters. The first parameter in this case i =1 is the assignment parameter, the next one 1 <= power is the valadation parameter. So if we call the function like so...exponential(2,4) is i less than 4? The next parameter is an increment/decrement parameter. but this doesnt get executed until the code inside the for loop gets executed. Once the code inside the for loop is executed then this variable i adds 1 to itself so it is now 2. This is usefull because once i is no longer less than or equal to power it will exit the for loop. So in the case of exponential(2,4) once the code inside this for loop is ran 5 times it will exit the for loop because 6 > 5.
So if we look at a variable answer, we can see that before this for loop was called answer was equal to 1. After the first iteration of this for loop answer = answer times base. In the case of exponential(2,4) then answer equals 1 times 2, now answer =2. But we have only looped through the foor loop once , and like i said a for loop goes like (assignment, validator, "code inside the foor loop". then back up to increment/decrement). So since we to loop through this for loop 5 times in the case of exponential(2,4) it will look like so.
exponential(2,4)
answer = 1 * 2
now answer = 2
answer = 2 * 2
now answer = 4
answer = 4 * 2
now answer = 8
answer = 8 * 2
now answer = 16
answer = 16 * 2
now answer = 32
So if we could say... var int ans = exponential(2,4)
Then ans would equal 32 hence, the return answer; at the last line of your code.