Rings and C*-algebras generated by commutators

We show that a unital ring is generated by its commutators as an ideal if and only if there exists a natural number N such that every element is a sum of N products of pairs of commutators. We show that one can take N ≤ 2 for matrix rings, and that one may choose N ≤ 3 for rings that contain a direct sum of matrix rings – this in particular applies to C*-algebras that are properly infinite or have real rank zero. For Jiang-Su-stable C*-algebras, we show that N ≤ 6 can be arranged. For arbitrary rings, we show that every element in the commutator ideal admits a power that is a sum of products of commutators. Using that a C*-algebra cannot be a radical extension over a proper ideal, we deduce that a C*-algebra is generated by its commutators as a not necessarily closed ideal if and only if every element is a finite sum of products of pairs of commutators.