1.3 Example: Iterative Fibonacci

Here’s a much faster algorithm for computing the same Fibonacci series. It is faster for two reasons. First, it uses iteration (that is, repetition or looping) rather than recursion, so it doesn’t take time for a large number of function calls. But mainly, it is faster because the number of repetitions is small—only n.

int
fib (int n)
{
  int last = 1;   /* Initial value is fib (1).  */
  int prev = 0;   /* Initial value controls fib (2).  */
  int i;

  for (i = 1; i < n; ++i)
    /* If n is 1 or less, the loop runs zero times,  */
    /* since i < n is false the first time.  */
    {
      /* Now last is fib (i)
         and prev is fib (i - 1).  */
      /* Compute fib (i + 1).  */
      int next = prev + last;
      /* Shift the values down.  */
      prev = last;
      last = next;
      /* Now last is fib (i + 1)
         and prev is fib (i).
         But that won’t stay true for long,
         because we are about to increment i.  */
    }

  return last;
}

This definition computes fib (n) in a time proportional to n. The comments in the definition explain how it works: it advances through the series, always keeps the last two values in last and prev, and adds them to get the next value.

Here are the additional C features that this definition uses:

Internal blocks

Within a function, wherever a statement is called for, you can write a block. It looks like { … } and contains zero or more statements and declarations. (You can also use additional blocks as statements in a block.)

The function body also counts as a block, which is why it can contain statements and declarations.

See Blocks.

Declarations of local variables

This function body contains declarations as well as statements. There are three declarations directly in the function body, as well as a fourth declaration in an internal block. Each starts with int because it declares a variable whose type is integer. One declaration can declare several variables, but each of these declarations is simple and declares just one variable.

Variables declared inside a block (either a function body or an internal block) are local variables. These variables exist only within that block; their names are not defined outside the block, and exiting the block deallocates their storage. This example declares four local variables: last, prev, i, and next.

The most basic local variable declaration looks like this:

type variablename;

For instance,

int i;

declares the local variable i as an integer. See Variable Declarations.

Initializers

When you declare a variable, you can also specify its initial value, like this:

type variablename = value;

For instance,

int last = 1;

declares the local variable last as an integer (type int) and starts it off with the value 1. See Initializers.

Assignment

Assignment: a specific kind of expression, written with the ‘=’ operator, that stores a new value in a variable or other place. Thus,

variable = value

is an expression that computes value and stores the value in variable. See Assignment Expressions.

Expression statements

An expression statement is an expression followed by a semicolon. That computes the value of the expression, then ignores the value.

An expression statement is useful when the expression changes some data or has other side effects—for instance, with function calls, or with assignments as in this example. See Expression Statement.

Using an expression with no side effects in an expression statement is pointless except in very special cases. For instance, the expression statement x; would examine the value of x and ignore it. That is not useful.

Increment operator

The increment operator is ‘++’. ++i is an expression that is short for i = i + 1. See Increment/Decrement.

for statements

A for statement is a clean way of executing a statement repeatedly—a loop (see Loop Statements). Specifically,

for (i = 1; i < n; ++i)
  body

means to start by doing i = 1 (set i to one) to prepare for the loop. The loop itself consists of

• Testing i < n and exiting the loop if that’s false.
• Executing body.
• Advancing the loop (executing ++i, which increments i).

The net result is to execute body with 0 in i, then with 1 in i, and so on, stopping just before the repetition where i would equal n.

The body of the for statement must be one and only one statement. You can’t write two statements in a row there; if you try to, only the first of them will be treated as part of the loop.

The way to put multiple statements in those places is to group them with a block, and that’s what we do in this example.