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A classic example of recursion is the definition of the factorial function, given here in Python code: def factorial ( n ): if n > 0 : return n * factorial ( n - 1 ) else : return 1 The function calls itself recursively on a smaller version of the input (n - 1) and multiplies the result of the recursive call by n , until reaching the base case ...
Recursive drawing of a Sierpiński Triangle through turtle graphics. In computer science, recursion is a method of solving a computational problem where the solution depends on solutions to smaller instances of the same problem. [1] [2] Recursion solves such recursive problems by using functions that call themselves from within their own code ...
In computer science, corecursion is a type of operation that is dual to recursion.Whereas recursion works analytically, starting on data further from a base case and breaking it down into smaller data and repeating until one reaches a base case, corecursion works synthetically, starting from a base case and building it up, iteratively producing data further removed from a base case.
For example, addition and division, the factorial and exponential function, and the function which returns the nth prime are all primitive recursive. [1] In fact, for showing that a computable function is primitive recursive, it suffices to show that its time complexity is bounded above by a primitive recursive function of the input size. [ 2 ]
Because fixed-point combinators can be used to implement recursion, it is possible to use them to describe specific types of recursive computations, such as those in fixed-point iteration, iterative methods, recursive join in relational databases, data-flow analysis, FIRST and FOLLOW sets of non-terminals in a context-free grammar, transitive ...
Conversely, the use of fixed-pointed combinators may be generically referred to as "anonymous recursion", as this is a notable use of them, though they have other applications. [3] [4] This is illustrated below using Python. First, a standard named recursion:
function factorial (n is a non-negative integer) if n is 0 then return 1 [by the convention that 0! = 1] else if n is in lookup-table then return lookup-table-value-for-n else let x = factorial(n – 1) times n [recursively invoke factorial with the parameter 1 less than n] store x in lookup-table in the n th slot [remember the result of n! for ...
Hindu scholars have been using factorial formulas since at least 1150, when Bhāskara II mentioned factorials in his work Līlāvatī, in connection with a problem of how many ways Vishnu could hold his four characteristic objects (a conch shell, discus, mace, and lotus flower) in his four hands, and a similar problem for a ten-handed god. [4]