What is the closed form of the $f$ with $f(1)=1$, $f(2)=7$ and $f(n)=7f(n-1)-12f(n-2)$ ($n\ge 3$)? 
Suppose $f(1)=1$ and $f(2)=7$. For $n\ge 3$ we have 
  $$f(n)=7f(n-1)-12f(n-2).
$$
  What is the closed form of the function $f$?


I've tried unrolling it but it gets very complicated very quickly without a clear pattern emerging. Any ideas?
 A: Say we have $$\boxed{a_{n+1} = (x+y)a_n-xya_{n-1}}$$ then we can do: $$a_{n+1}-xa_n = y(a_n-xa_{n-1})$$ and $$a_{n+1}-ya_n = x(a_n-ya_{n-1})$$
Putting $\boxed{b_n =a_n-xa_{n-1}}$ and $\boxed{c_n = a_n-ya_{n-1}}$ we can finish as before.
In general $x,y$ are solution of quadratic (characteristic) equation $t^2-pt-q=0$ of  recursion $$a_{n+1} = pa_n+qa_{n-1}$$

One more example: $$a_{n+1} = 2a_n+8a_{n-1}.$$ Then we can do $$a_{n+1}+2a_n = 4(a_n+2a_{n-1})$$ and $$a_{n+1}-4a_n = -2(a_n-4a_{n-1})$$
Then with $b_n =a_n+2a_{n-1}$ and $c_n = a_n-4a_{n-1}$ we are done...
A: Write $a_n = f(n)$ instead.
Step 1
You can note that $$a_{n+1}-4a_n = 3(a_n-4a_{n-1})$$ so putting $b_n=a_n-4a_{n-1}$ you get $$b_{n+1} = 3b_n$$ so $b_n$ is geometric progression, with $b_2=3$ so $b_1=1$ and thus $$b_n =  3^{n-1}$$ so $$\boxed{a_{n+1}-4a_n =3^n}$$
Step 2
You can also note that $$a_{n+1}-3a_n = 4(a_n-3a_{n-1})$$ so putting $c_n=a_n-3a_{n-1}$ you get $$c_{n+1} = 4c_n$$ so $c_n$ is geometric progression, with $c_2=4$ so $c_1=1$ and thus $$c_n = 4^{n-1}$$ so $$\boxed{a_{n+1}-3a_n =  4^{n}}$$
Step 3
If you substract those formulas in boxes you get:
$$\boxed{a_n = 4^{n}- 3^n}$$
A: The characteristic equation is $x^2-7x+12=0$, which factors as $(x-3)(x-4)=0$, yielding two roots, 3 and 4.  So $f(n)=a\cdot 3^n+b\cdot 4^n$ for some constants $a$ and $b$.  Now use the values of $f(1)$ and $f(2)$ to solve for $a$ and $b$.
A: Unfortunately I don't know what your mathematical background is to know if this is a useful answer, but I'll post it for the sake of completeness.
What you have is a linear constant-coefficient difference equation.  
There are lots of ways to solve them, some specialized, but the usual generic one is linear algebra:
\begin{align*}
\overbrace{\begin{bmatrix} a_{n+1} \\ a_{n\phantom{+1}} \end{bmatrix}}^{x_{n+1}}
&= \overbrace{\begin{bmatrix} 7 & -12 \\ 1 & 0 \end{bmatrix}}^A
\overbrace{\begin{bmatrix} a_{n\phantom{-1}} \\ a_{n-1} \end{bmatrix}}^{x_n} \\
&= \begin{bmatrix} 7 & -12 \\ 1 & 0 \end{bmatrix}^{n-1}
\begin{bmatrix} 7 \\ 1 \end{bmatrix}
\end{align*}
Now you want to compute $A^{n-1}$, for which you'd diagonalize $A$ and get
\begin{align*}
A^n = \begin{bmatrix} 4 & 1 \\ 3 & 1 \end{bmatrix}^{-1}\begin{bmatrix} 4^n & 0 \\ 0 & 3^n \end{bmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} 4 & 1 \\ 3 & 1 \end{bmatrix}
\end{align*}
which you can substitute to obtain $a_{n+1}$.
