Category:Recursion: Difference between revisions
(New page: '''Recursion''' is the idea that a function can come to an answer by repeatedly "calling itself" with new arguments until a "base case" is met. One good example is a factorial function. Th...) |
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'''Recursion''' is the idea that a function can come to an answer by repeatedly "calling itself" with new arguments until a "base case" is met. One good example is a factorial function. The base case for factorial is "0!" (some people like to use 1 or 2, but for instructional purposes 0 is OK). When 5 is sent as an argument to a recursive factorial function, the function does no know the answer right away. All it knows is that 5! = 5 * 4!. so it calls itself to find out what 4! is. This process continues until it gets to 0!, which is 1. Now it has built up a train of answers: 5! = 5 * 4! = 5 * 4 * 3! etc. and it can find the answer. |
'''Recursion''' is the idea that a function can come to an answer by repeatedly "calling itself" with new arguments until a "base case" is met. One good example is a factorial function. The base case for factorial is "0!" (some people like to use 1 or 2, but for instructional purposes 0 is OK). When 5 is sent as an argument to a recursive factorial function, the function does no know the answer right away. All it knows is that 5! = 5 * 4!. so it calls itself to find out what 4! is. This process continues until it gets to 0!, which is 1. Now it has built up a train of answers: 5! = 5 * 4! = 5 * 4 * 3! etc. and it can find the answer. |
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A pseudocode-ish function to demonstrate recursion would look something like this: |
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function F with arguments |
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if end condition is not met |
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return F called with new set of arguments |
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else |
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return end condition value |
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Below is a list of examples of recursion in computing. |
Below is a list of examples of recursion in computing. |
Revision as of 00:45, 28 January 2008
Recursion is the idea that a function can come to an answer by repeatedly "calling itself" with new arguments until a "base case" is met. One good example is a factorial function. The base case for factorial is "0!" (some people like to use 1 or 2, but for instructional purposes 0 is OK). When 5 is sent as an argument to a recursive factorial function, the function does no know the answer right away. All it knows is that 5! = 5 * 4!. so it calls itself to find out what 4! is. This process continues until it gets to 0!, which is 1. Now it has built up a train of answers: 5! = 5 * 4! = 5 * 4 * 3! etc. and it can find the answer.
A pseudocode-ish function to demonstrate recursion would look something like this:
function F with arguments if end condition is not met return F called with new set of arguments else return end condition value
Below is a list of examples of recursion in computing.
Pages in category "Recursion"
The following 30 pages are in this category, out of 30 total.