Recursion

Overview

Recursion refers to a technique in a programming language where a function calls itself. The function which calls itself is called a recursive method.

Characteristics

A recursive function must posses the following two characteristics

• Base Case(s)
• Set of rules which leads to base case after reducing the cases.

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Recursive Factorial

Factorial is one of the classical example of recursion. Factorial is a non-negative number satisfying following conditions.

1. 0! = 1
2. 1! = 1
3. n! = n * n-1!

Factorial is represented by “!”. Here Rule 1 and Rule 2 are base cases and Rule 3 are factorial rules.

As an example, 3! = 3 x 2 x 1 = 6

private int factorial(int n){
   //base case
   if(n == 0){
      return 1;
   }else{
      return n * factorial(n-1);
   }
}

Recursive Fibonacci Series

Fibonacci Series is another classical example of recursion. Fibonacci series a series of integers satisfying following conditions.

1. F₀ = 0
2. F₁ = 1
3. F_n = F_n-1 + F_n-2

Fibonacci is represented by “F”. Here Rule 1 and Rule 2 are base cases and Rule 3 are fibonnacci rules.

As an example, F₅ = 0 1 1 2 3

Demo Program

RecursionDemo.java

package com.tutorialspoint.algorithm;

public class RecursionDemo {
   public static void main(String[] args){
      RecursionDemo recursionDemo = new RecursionDemo();
      int n = 5;
      System.out.println("Factorial of " + n + ": "
         + recursionDemo.factorial(n));
      System.out.print("Fibbonacci of " + n + ": ");
      for(int i=0;i<n;i++){
         System.out.print(recursionDemo.fibbonacci(i) +" ");            
      }
   }

   private int factorial(int n){
      //base case
      if(n == 0){
         return 1;
      }else{
         return n * factorial(n-1);
      }
   }

   private int fibbonacci(int n){
      if(n ==0){
         return 0;
      }
      else if(n==1){
         return 1;
      }
      else {
         return (fibbonacci(n-1) + fibbonacci(n-2));
      }
   }
}

If we compile and run the above program then it would produce following result −

Factorial of 5: 120
Fibbonacci of 5: 0 1 1 2 3