Recursion

Recursion is a function that that either directly or indirectly makes a call to itself. The idea behind recursion is that you can break down a large problem into smaller problems until it is finally just a simple problem to solve. Recursive solutions are somewhat difficult to create because they must be made very carefully. The idea of the solution is for each successive call of the function should bring you closer and closer to an easily solved solution. The easily solved solution is known as the base case. Every recursive case is required to have at least one base case. It also must have at least one general case. The general case is any of the recursive steps that you take in order to get to the base case. A common way to look at a recursive case is by examining a function that computes the Fibonacci number.

int Fibonacci(int n){

if (n == 0)

return 0; // base case

if (n == 1)

return 1; // base case

return Fibonacci(n – 1) + Fibonacci(n– 2); // recursion}

One problem with recursion is that many times you can create an infinite recursion which is similar to an infinite loop. It is a fatal error that will cause the program to never stop running because it cannot get out of infinite recursion. However, recursion can sometimes be the best solution to a problem.