Raising a 2D array to a power in C -

i'm using c , have 2d array representing square matrix. want calculate matrix power of n, given integer.

i'm after efficient way this. first thought multiply matrix n times heard of exponentiation squaring. i'm not sure how implement this, please guide me through it?

here basic outline:

matrix matrixexponent(matrix m, int n) {       matrix accumulator = matrixidentity();       matrix power2 = m;        while(n != 0)       {            if(n & 1)                  accumulator = matrixmultiply(&accumulator, &power2);            power2 = matrixmultiply(&power2, &power2);            n = n / 2;       }       return accumulator; } 

you store accumulator, partially computed exponent. given integer exponent can broken down series of power-of-2 exponents multiplied together. example when raising array power of 14 (1110 in binary), matrix multiplied 14 times equal to:

m¹⁴ = m⁸ * m⁴ * m²

so compute powers of 2 repeatedly multiplying power2 itself, while stepping through each bit of integer exponent n, , multiplying power2 accumulator each time bit 1.