In MariaDB, POW() is a built-in function that returns the value of its first argument raised to the power of its second argument.

Syntax

The syntax goes like this:

POW(X,Y)

It returns X raised to the power of Y.

The POWER() function is a synonym to POW(), so it can also be done like this:

POWER(X,Y)

Example

Here’s an example to demonstrate:

SELECT POW(2, 3);

Result:

+-----------+
| POW(2, 3) |
+-----------+
|         8 |
+-----------+

Negative Values

Here are some examples that use negative values:

SELECT 
    POW(-2, 3),
    POW(2, -3),
    POW(-2, -3);

Result:

+------------+------------+-------------+
| POW(-2, 3) | POW(2, -3) | POW(-2, -3) |
+------------+------------+-------------+
|         -8 |      0.125 |      -0.125 |
+------------+------------+-------------+

Non-Numeric Arguments

Here’s an example of what happens when we provide non-numeric arguments:

SELECT POW('Homer', 'Symptom');

Result:

+-------------------------+
| POW('Homer', 'Symptom') |
+-------------------------+
|                       1 |
+-------------------------+
1 row in set, 2 warnings (0.000 sec)

Let’s see the warning:

SHOW WARNINGS;

Result:

+---------+------+---------------------------------------------+
| Level   | Code | Message                                     |
+---------+------+---------------------------------------------+
| Warning | 1292 | Truncated incorrect DOUBLE value: 'Homer'   |
| Warning | 1292 | Truncated incorrect DOUBLE value: 'Symptom' |
+---------+------+---------------------------------------------+

Null Arguments

POW() returns null if any argument is null:

SELECT 
    POW(2, null),
    POW(null, 3),
    POW(null, null);

Result:

+--------------+--------------+-----------------+
| POW(2, null) | POW(null, 3) | POW(null, null) |
+--------------+--------------+-----------------+
|         NULL |         NULL |            NULL |
+--------------+--------------+-----------------+

Missing Arguments

Calling POW() with the wrong number of arguments, or without any arguments results in an error:

SELECT POW();

Result:

ERROR 1582 (42000): Incorrect parameter count in the call to native function 'POW'

And:

SELECT POW(10, 2, 3);

Result:

ERROR 1582 (42000): Incorrect parameter count in the call to native function 'POW'