How to implement this function in Java?

Question

I built the following function that finds the nth root of a number in Python:

def find_root(base, nth_root, top = None, bottom = 0):
    if top == None: top = base

    half = (float(top) + float(bottom)) / 2.0 

    if half**nth_root == base or half == top or half == bottom:
        return half
    if half**nth_root > base:
        return find_root(base, nthRoot, half, bottom)
    if half**nth_root < base:
        return find_root(base, nthRoot, top, half)

As you can probably tell it is highly dependent upon default parameters. Is there (1) a better way to do this (I want it to be recursive), and (2) (this question probably has the same answer as 1) how can I do this in Java if the language does not support default parameters?

I'm new to Java and trying to work out the differences.

Thanks,

Michael G.

Closest one I've seen: http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Nth_root#Java — Martijn Pieters, Aug 14 '12 at 14:08

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 14 '12 at 14:05

4

You can use method overloading to simulate default parameters:

int find_root(int base, int nth_root) {
  return find_root(base, nth_root, -1, 0);
}

int find_root(int base, nth_root, int top, int bottom) {
    // ...
}

answered Aug 14 '12 at 14:05

João Silva

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Thank you, this reaffirms what I thought. – mjgpy3 Aug 15 '12 at 02:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 14 '12 at 14:15

0

You can also use varargs feature. Example here.

answered Aug 14 '12 at 14:15

Odysseus

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How to implement this function in Java?

2 Answers2