Recursion

[sam2sos]

can anyone tell how recursive function do i dont really understand it
i have complicate hw plz

[rocketboy9000]

A recursive function is one that calls itself to solve some subset of the problem. An example would be this factorial routine:

int factorial(int n){
	if(n==1)return 1;
	return x*factorial(n-1);
}

This routine creates n call frames, each with n reduced by one, then multiplies the numbers together to get the factorial.

[3pj6b7Xj]

Recursion is when you use them same function within itself, for example...

int addnumbers(int value1, int value2);

int main()
{
int a = 36;
int b = 11;
int result = addnumbers(a,b);
return 0;
}

int addnumbers(int value1, int value2)
{
int sum = value1+value2;
int newstuff = addnumbers(sum,100);

return newstuff;
}

Did you see what happened? The same function called itself within itself to do yet more math. that is called recursion but you have to be careful with that as I believe it goes into a stack, too much recursion and you can have some pretty nasty stuff happen. I actually avoid recursion, I don't like it at all.

[rocketboy9000]

mrfaosfx, your function will never return, because it always calls itself. It will just end the program with a stack overflow. When using recursion, you must be aware of how many stack frames will be created, and how big they will be.

[3pj6b7Xj]

aw man, you blew the surprise, I wanted the poster to figure that little bomb i put in there, lol...I knew somebody would pick it up quick, I did that specially to point out the issues of recursion if your not careful, and innocent little program may appear fine but in reality, it may not be ;-)