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Understanding Recursion in Programming

Recursion is a powerful programming technique where a function calls itself to solve a problem by breaking it down into smaller subproblems until a base case is reached. It is commonly used to traverse tree structures and in divide-and-conquer algorithms like merge sort. While recursive solutions can be concise, they have overhead from function calls that makes them less efficient than iterative solutions.

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31 views2 pages

Understanding Recursion in Programming

Recursion is a powerful programming technique where a function calls itself to solve a problem by breaking it down into smaller subproblems until a base case is reached. It is commonly used to traverse tree structures and in divide-and-conquer algorithms like merge sort. While recursive solutions can be concise, they have overhead from function calls that makes them less efficient than iterative solutions.

Uploaded by

cleam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Recursion is a powerful programming technique where a function calls itself in order to solve a problem.

It i

### Basic Principles:

1. **Base Case**: Every recursive function must have a base case, which is a condition that determines wh

2. **Recursive Case**: The recursive case defines how the problem is divided into smaller subproblems. It

### Structure of a Recursive Function:

A recursive function typically follows this structure:

```python

def recursive_function(parameters):

if base_case_condition:

# Base case: return a value without recursion

return base_case_value

else:

# Recursive case: call the function with modified arguments

return recursive_function(modified_parameters)

```

### Example: Factorial Function

A classic example of recursion is the factorial function, which computes the factorial of a non-negative integ

```python

def factorial(n):

if n == 0:

return 1 # Base case: factorial of 0 is 1

else:
return n * factorial(n - 1) # Recursive case: n! = n * (n-1)!

```

### Visualizing Recursion:

1. **Call Stack**: Each recursive call creates a new stack frame, which contains the function's local variable

2. **Tree Structure**: Recursion can be visualized as a tree structure, where each node represents a functi

### Use Cases:

1. **Tree and Graph Traversal**: Recursion is commonly used to traverse tree and graph data structures, s

2. **Divide and Conquer Algorithms**: Many divide and conquer algorithms, such as merge sort and quicks

### Pros and Cons:

- **Pros**: Recursion often leads to concise and elegant solutions, especially for problems that can be natu

- **Cons**: Recursive solutions may be less efficient than iterative solutions due to the overhead of function

### Conclusion:

Recursion is a fundamental programming technique that enables elegant solutions to a wide range of probl

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