Recursion - Multimedia Introduction to Programming Using Java - page 394

Chapter 15

Recursion

OBJECTIVES

• Learn what recursion means and see how it applies to methods.
• Learn the two perspectives on recursive calls: how to execute them and
how to understand them.
• Study some interesting recursive methods.
• Learn about object recursion.
• Develop a skill in writing recursive methods.

INTRODUCTION
A recursive definition is a definition that defines something in terms of itself. For
example, a noun phrase could be defined as either a noun or an adjective fol-
lowed by a noun phrase . Mathematics is rampant with recursive definitions be-
cause using recursion is often the easiest way to define something.
Recursion is a powerful tool in programming. For some tasks, using recur-
sive methods is much easier than using loops. In fact, there are functional pro-
gramming languages that rely completely on recursion and do not have loops.
In this chapter, we study recursion and show how useful it is.

15.1 The recursive pattern

15.1.1 A simple recursive definition

A noun phrase is a series of adjectives (possibly empty) followed by a noun.
Since dog is a noun, dog is also a noun phrase —here, the series of adjectives is
empty. Since the , big , and brown are adjectives, the big brown dog is also a noun
phrase.

Activity
15-1.1