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Data Structures

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Chapter 5
Recursion

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Recursion Specifications
 Recursion is a method where the solution to a problem depends on solutions to
smaller instances of the same problem.

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 Recursion Specifications
 A recursive procedure or function calls itself directly or indirectly.
 Direct Recursion: a function calls itself.
void FunA()
{
FunA();
}
 Indirect Recursion
 function A calls function B, and function B calls function A.
void FunA() void FunB()
{ {
FunB(); FunA();
} }
 Or, function A calls function B, which calls function C, which then calls function
A
void FunA() void FunB() void FunC()
{ { {
FunB(); FunC(); FunA();
} } } 5
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Recursion Specifications

 A recursive process consists of two parts:

 A base case: the part that is processed without recursion (termination case).

 A general case: the part that is reduced to one, or more, smaller cases. Each time a
recursive call is made, it comes closer to the base case.

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 Recursion Specifications

Working with Recursion

 Find the general step

 Begin by asking yourself “How can this problem be divided into parts?”.

 Be sure to keep your answer simple but applicable in the general case.

 Find the stopping rule (base case)

 The stopping rule indicates that the problem is done.

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 Working with Recursion

 Outline your algorithm

 Combine the stopping rule and the general step, using an if statement to select between
them.
 You should now be able to write the main program and a recursive function that will
describe how to subdivide the problem until the stopping rule applies.
 Check termination

 Verify that the recursion will always terminate. Start with a general situation and check
that, in a finite number of steps, the stopping rule will be satisfied and the recursion will
terminate.
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 How Function Calls Work

 When a function is called, it must have a storage area which is used to save all needed
data for this call as calling parameters, local variables, return value, …etc.
 When the function returns, the storage area is released.
 In the Figure below, we have:
 The function main(…) calls the function r(…).
 The function r(…) calls the function s(…), which calls the function t(…)

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How Function Calls Work

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 How Recursive Function Calls Work

 Each time a recursive function is called, a new copy of the function runs, with new
instances of parameters and local variables being created.
 As each copy finishes executing, it returns to the copy of the function that called it.
 When the initial copy finishes executing, it returns to the part of the program that
made the initial call to the function.

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How Recursive Function Calls Work

Example 1 Output

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How Recursive Function Calls Work

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 How Recursive Function Calls Work
Example 2 Order of function call ()
RecFun(5)
print5
RecFun(4)
print 4
RecFun(3)
print 3
RecFun(2)
print 2
RecFun(1)
print 1
RecFun(0)
print Stop!

Output
Try to modify this section to become: 5
RecFun(n-1); 4
System.out.println(n + " "); 3
what will the output be?? 2
1
Stop!
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Solving Recursively Defined Problems
 The natural definition of some problems leads to a recursive solution.
Example 1: Factorial Problem
 The factorial of a nonnegative integer n is the product of all positive integers less or
equal to n.
 The factorial of n is denoted by n!
 The factorial of 0 is 1.

0!=1
n ! = n × (n-1) × … × 2 × 1 if n > 0
 Factorial of n can be expressed in terms of the factorial of n-1

0!=1
n ! = n x (n-1) ! Faculty of Information Technology - Computer Science Department 15
Solving Recursively Defined Problems
• n ! = n × (n-1) × … × 2 × 1 if n > 0
5!=5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1=120

• n ! = n x (n-1) !
– 5!=5 × 4!
– 5!=5 ×4 × 3!
– 5!=5 ×4 × 3 ×2!
– 5!=5 ×4 × 3 ×2 ×1!
– 5!=5 ×4 × 3 ×2 ×1 ×0!
– 5!=5 ×4 × 3 ×2 ×1 ×1

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Solving Recursively Defined Problems

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Solving Recursively Defined Problems

Example 2: Fibonacci Numbers

fib(0), fib(1), fib(2), fib(3), fib(4), fib(5), …
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ...
 After the initial 0 and 1, each term is the sum of the two preceding terms.
 Recursive calculation of the nth Fibonacci number:
fib(n) = fib(n – 1) + fib(n – 2);
 Base cases: n = = 0, n = = 1

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Recursive Fibonacci Function

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Recursive Linked-List Processing

 Recursion is usually used with linked list processing to iterate (traverse) the linked
list backwards.
 For example, if we want to reverse print the content of a linked list we can achieve
that easily using recursion.

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Recursive Linked-List Processing

 To run this function, you need to define

public function:

 In the main function, trivially, public will be

called which will call the private one with
the head node as parameter.

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Repetition

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Recursion Specifications
Iterative

Recursion

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