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Binary ** is the exponentiation operator. Note that it binds even more tightly than unary minus, so -2**4 is -(2**4), not (-2)**4. The operator is implemented using C's pow(3) function, which works with floating-point numbers internally. It calculates using logarithms, which means that it works with fractional powers, but you sometimes get results that aren't as exact as a straight multiplication would produce.
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| 3.3. Autoincrement and Autodecrement |  | 3.5. Ideographic Unary Operators |
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