What is tail recursion in Python?

What is tail recursion in Python?

Tail recursion is a specific kind of recursion where the recursive call is the last operation in the function.

Can you give me an example of a tail recursive function?

Sure! Here's a simple example of a tail recursive function that calculates the factorial of a number:

def factorial(n, accumulator=1):
    if n == 0:
        return accumulator
    return factorial(n - 1, n * accumulator)

How does this differ from regular recursion?

In regular recursion, the function may perform additional operations after the recursive call, which can lead to higher memory usage. Tail recursion optimizes this by reusing the current function's stack frame.

Is tail recursion supported in Python?

Python does not optimize for tail recursion, so it can still lead to a stack overflow for deep recursion. It's often better to use iterative solutions in Python.