Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2014/functional-programming-design-and-analysis-of-algorithms/1/e/solution
Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford 2014 Functional programming, design and analysis of algorithms 1 e Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
Keep the two adjacent Fibonacci numbers in one shared pair. From the Fibonacci recurrence, if the current pair is , the next is . This gives the paired Fibonacci recurrence:
twoFibs :: Integer -> (Integer, Integer)
twoFibs 0 = (0, 1)
twoFibs n
| n > 0 = let (a, b) = twoFibs (n - 1)
in (b, a + b)
| otherwise = error "negative Fibonacci index"
fib :: Integer -> Integer
fib = fst . twoFibsThe pair pattern shares the result of the single recursive call. Mathematical induction establishesThere are pair updates and additions, rather than the repeated subcomputations of the original branching recursion. This is linear arithmetic-operation count; exact Fibonacci numbers have growing bit length. The pattern
fib (n+2) in the source expresses the recurrence; the guarded definition above uses ordinary Haskell syntax without requiring an n+k pattern extension. New to topics? Read the docs here!