What is recursion and can you give me some examples?

What is recursion and can you give me some examples?

Recursion is a programming technique where a function calls itself to solve a problem. A classic example is calculating factorials.

Can you explain how the factorial function works using recursion?

Sure! The factorial of a number n (denoted as n!) is the product of all positive integers up to n. In recursion, it can be defined as:

• factorial(n) = n * factorial(n-1) if n > 1
• factorial(1) = 1 (base case)

So, factorial(5) would be 5 * factorial(4), and so on.

What are some other real-world applications of recursion?

Recursion is used in various applications, such as:

1. Navigating file systems.
2. Solving puzzles like the Tower of Hanoi.
3. Implementing algorithms like quicksort and mergesort.

Can you show me a simple code example of recursion?

Certainly! Here's a simple Python example for calculating factorial:

def factorial(n):
    if n == 1:
        return 1
    else:
        return n * factorial(n - 1)

You can call factorial(5) to get 120.