Question

You might have heard of recursion described as “It’s a function that calls itself”. Describe an example of how this works and compare with an iterative call. What are the advantages of using a recursive approach?  Describe implications for using a recursive approach

Answer 1

Definition:

Recursion:
A recursive function calls itself again and again until, some condition is satisfied

Iteration:
An iteration, is repetitive call or execution of a statment,using loop, till condition is satisfied.

Example Factorial function:

Recursion:

int factorial(int n)
{
if(n==0)
   return 1;
else
   return n*factorial(n-1); //call the function till n=0
}

Iterative Method:

int factorial(int n)
{
int result=1;

//runs the loop till i<=n
for(int i=0;i<=n;i++)
result= result*i;

return result;
}

Advantage of Recursive approach:
1) reduce the code size
2) less number of varaibles
3) unnecessary function call is reduced.

implications for using a recursive approach:
1)infinite recursion leads to system crash.
2)infinite recursion takes more memory space and execution time

//for any clarification, please do comments