An efficient adaptive approximation demosaicking algorithm based on the sampled edge pattern was presented for mosaic images from Bayer color filter array. The proposed algorithm determined edge patterns by four nearest green values surrounding the green interpolation location. Then according to the edge patterns, different adaptive interpolation steps were applied. Simulations on 12 Kodak photos and 15 IMAX high-quality images showed that the proposed method outperformed the other four demosaicking methods (bilinear, effective color interpolation, Lu's method and Chen's method) for average color peak signal to noise ratios and maintained a relatively low complexity owing to constant color-difference interpolation step and a reasonable terminating condition of iteration.