Mr.

Mahmoud Moussa A2 CS 9618

Chapter 25 Homework Questions

Question 1

Distinguish between iteration and recursion. [2]

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Give one advantage and one disadvantage of using recursive subroutines. [2]
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Question 2

The following is a recursively defined function which calculates the result of BaseExponent. For
example, 23 is 8.
FUNCTION Power (Base: INTEGER, Exponent INTEGER) RETURNS INTEGER
IF Exponent = 0 THEN
Result ← 1
ELSE
Result ← Base * Power (Base, Exponent - 1)
ENDIF
RETURN Result
END FUNCTION

What is meant by 'recursively defined '? [1]

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Explain the role of the stack in the execution of the Power function. [2]
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Write a pseudocode non-recursive (iterative) version of the Power function. [3]
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Give one reason why a non-recursive Power function may be preferred to a recursive one. [1]
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Give one reason why a recursive Power function may be preferred to a non- recursive one. [1]
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Question 3

The following is a recursively defined function which calculates the nth integer in the sequence of
Fibonacci numbers
01 FUNCTION Fibonacci (n : INTEGER) RETURNS INTEGER
02 IF (n = 0) OR (n = 1 )
03 THEN
04 Result ← 1
05 ELSE
06 Result ← Fibonacci (n - 1) + Fibonacci (n - 2)
07 ENDIF
08 RETURN Result
09 ENDFUNCTION

Which line is the base case? [1]

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Which line is the general case? [1]
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Question 4

A recursively defined procedure X is defined below:

PROCEDURE X(n : INTEGER)
IF (n = 0) OR (n = 1) THEN
OUTPUT n
ELSE
CALL X(n DIV 2)
OUTPUT (n MOD 2)
ENDIF
ENDPROCEDURE

Explain what is meant by recursively defined. [1]

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Explain how a stack is used during the execution of a recursive procedure. [2]
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Dry run the procedure X by completing the trace table for the procedure call:
CALL X(40)

OUTPUT
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State the process that is carried out by procedure X. [1]
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Question 5

State what is meant by a recursively defined procedure. [2]

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Write the line number from the pseudocode shown below that shows the procedure X is recursive.
[1]
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01 PROCEDURE X(Index, Item)
02 IF MyList[Index] > 0
03 THEN
04 IF MyList(Index) >= Item
05 THEN
06 MyList[Index] ← MyList[Index + 1]
07 ENDIF
08 CALL X(Index + 1, Item)
09 ENDIF
10 ENDPROCEDURE

An array MyList is used to store a sorted data set of non-zero integers. Unused cells contain zero.

Complete the trace table for the dry-run of the pseudocode for the procedure
CALL X(1, 9).

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State the purpose of procedure X when used with the array MyList. [2]

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Question 6

NameList is a 1D array that stores a sorted list of names. A programmer declares the array in

pseudocode as follows:
NameList : Array[0 : 100] OF STRING

The programmer wants to search the list using a binary search algorithm.
The programmer decides to write the search algorithm as a recursive function. The function, Find,

takes three parameters:

• Name, the string to be searched for

• Start, the index of the first item in the list to be searched

• Finish, the index of the last item in the list to be searched

The function will return the position of the name in the list, or −1 if the name is not found.
Complete the pseudocode for the recursive function.
FUNCTION Find(BYVAL Name : STRING, BYVAL Start : INTEGER, BYVAL
Finish : INTEGER) RETURNS INTEGER
// base case
IF ……………………………………………………………………………………………… THEN
RETURN -1
ELSE
Middle ← ………………………………………………………………………………………………
IF ………………………………………………………………………………………………THEN
RETURN ………………………………………………………………………………………………
ELSE // general case
IF SearchItem > ………………………………………………………………………………THEN
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ELSE
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ENDIF
ENDIF
ENDIF
ENDFUNCTION

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