Recursion
<mathematics, programming> When a function (or procedure) calls itself.
Such a function is called "recursive".
If the call is via one or more other functions then this group of functions are called "mutually recursive".
If a function will always call itself, however it is called, then it will never terminate.
Usually however, it first performs some test on its arguments to check for a "base case" - a condition under which it can return a value without calling itself.
The canonical example of a recursive function is factorial:
factorial 0 = 1 factorial n = n * factorial (n-1)
Functional programming languages rely heavily on recursion, using it where a procedural language would use iteration.
See also recursion, recursive definition, tail recursion.
[Jargon File]
| < Previous Terms | Terms Containing recursion | Next Terms > |
| Record Management Services records Record Separator rectangle slinger recurse | 6.001 Backus-Naur Form conversion to iteration Crystal Erlang | recursion theory recursive recursive acronym recursive definition recursive descent parser |
