Difference between sqrt(x) and pow(x,0.5)

Question

I was wondering why there is sqrt() function in C/c++ as we can achieve the same using

pow(x,0.5);

how is sqrt(x) different for pow(x,0.5) . Is there a specific reason of having sqrt function?

Answer 1

I ran a test for you to check the performance of sqrt(x) and pow(x,0.5)

1.

for(int i=0;i<100000000;i++) 
    pow(double(i),0.5);

2.

for(int i=0;i<100000000;i++)
    sqrt(double(i));  

1st one took around 20 seconds where as 2nd one took around 2 seconds on my computer. So performance is way better. As other have already mentioned readability is other reason.