Computer Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach

2.3 Recursion

THE IDEA OF CALLING ONE FUNCTION from another immediately suggests the possibility of a function calling itself. The function-call mechanism in Java and most modern programming languages supports this possibility, which is known as recursion. In this section, we will study examples of elegant and efficient recursive solutions to a variety of problems. Recursion is a powerful programming technique that we use often in this book. Recursive programs are often more compact and easier to understand than their nonrecursive counterparts. Few programmers become sufficiently comfortable with recursion to use it in everyday code, but solving a problem with an elegantly crafted recursive program is a satisfying experience that is certainly ...