8
Recursion

Recursion is a deceptively simple concept: any function that calls itself is recursive. Despite this apparent simplicity, understanding and applying recursion can be surprisingly complex. One of the major barriers to understanding recursion is that general descriptions tend to become highly theoretical, abstract, and mathematical. Although there is certainly value in that approach, this chapter instead follows a more pragmatic course, focusing on example, application, and comparison of recursive and iterative (nonrecursive) algorithms.