C++ Programming – number of valid parentheses expressions of given length

// C++ program to find valid paranthesisations of length n
// The majority of code is taken from method 3 of 
// http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/program-nth-catalan-number/
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
 
// Returns value of Binomial Coefficient C(n, k)
unsigned long int binomialCoeff(unsigned int n, unsigned int k)
{
    unsigned long int res = 1;
 
    // Since C(n, k) = C(n, n-k)
    if (k > n - k)
        k = n - k;
 
    // Calculate value of [n*(n-1)*---*(n-k+1)] / [k*(k-1)*---*1]
    for (int i = 0; i < k; ++i)
    {
        res *= (n - i);
        res /= (i + 1);
    }
 
    return res;
}
 
// A Binomial coefficient based function to find nth catalan
// number in O(n) time
unsigned long int catalan(unsigned int n)
{
    // Calculate value of 2nCn
    unsigned long int c = binomialCoeff(2*n, n);
 
    // return 2nCn/(n+1)
    return c/(n+1);
}
 
// Function to find possible ways to put balanced parenthesis
// in an expression of length n
unsigned long int findWays(unsigned n)
{
    // If n is odd, not possible to create any valid parentheses
    if (n & 1) return 0;
 
   // Otherwise return n/2'th Catalan Numer
   return catalan(n/2);
}
 
// Driver program to test above functions
int main()
{
    int n = 6;
    cout << "Total possible expressions of length "
         << n << " is " << findWays(6);
    return 0;
}