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Tutorial 6
Intro to Recursion

Recursion basics
By definition, a recursive function is a function that calls itself until a
certain condition is met. That condition is called the base case.
The best practice of recursion is to see a lot of examples and practice.
Lets see an example that will recursively print out the numbers from 1
to 5.

Example 1:
Recursive print
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void Print(int n){
if(n < 1) return;
Print(n-1);
cout << n << endl;
};
int main(){
Print(5);
return 0;
}

The print recursive function in the above program will accept an

integer argument. The base case of the function will be when the
argument is 0 since we want a number from 1 to 5. It will simply
return to the last function call.
Then, if the base case is false, the function is called again with 1 less
for the argument value. If you did not do this, the recursion would be
infinite.
Finally, it will simply output that current value of the argument when
the recursive calls are finished.

Recursive tracing

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When recursive functions are being called, they are placed on what is
called the runtime stack of a program. Just the same as a stack of
dishes, the item on the top is the item that is accessed. With a
program, it is the same idea that the most recent call to the stack is
the currently active function call.
Here is the trace for the above printing example. It shows the call of
the function and the value of n.
Print(5)
Print(4)
Print(3)
Print(2)
Print(1)
Print(0) <-- base case here.
Print(1) <-- prints 1
Print(2) <-- prints 2
Print(3) <-- prints 3
Print(4) <-- prints 4
Print(5) <-- prints 5

Another example is to print out a triangle of stars recursively:

Example 2:
Triangle of Stars Recursion
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void Triangle(int x) {
if (x <= 0) return;
Triangle(x - 1);
for (int i = 1; i <= x; i++)
cout << "*";
cout << endl;
}
int main() {
Triangle(7);
return 0;
}

The trace of the program will be as follows:

Triangle(7)
Triangle(6)
Triangle(5)
Triangle(4)
Triangle(3)
Triangle(2)

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Triangle(1)
Triangle(0) <-- base case
Triangle(1) <-- prints 1 star & new line
Triangle(2) <-- prints 2 stars & new line
Triangle(3) <-- prints 3 stars & new line
Triangle(4) <-- prints 4 stars & new line
Triangle(5) <-- prints 5 stars & new line
Triangle(6) <-- prints 6 stars & new line
Triangle(7) <-- prints 7 stars & new line

The output will be:

*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******

The factorial function

In math, the factorial of an integer is defined as the product of the
numbers less than the given integer up to 1. So say we wish to find
the factorial of 4 (written as 4!) it is written out as follows:
4! = 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24

In C++, we can write a recursive function to do the same thing. Below

is a short program containing that function and a proof that it works:

Example 3:
Factorial recursion
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int fact( int n ){
//base case:
if( n <= 1 ) return 1;
return n * fact(n-1);
}
int main(){
cout << fact(4) << endl;
return 0;
}

Proof Recursively:

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In the above main function, we are trying to find the factorial of the
integer 4. Using the rule of the factorials, the answer should be 24
since 4x3x2x1 = 24. Applying the function and passing in 4 as the
parameter, here is the tree:
Fact(4)
4* Fact(3)
3* Fact(2)
2* Fact(1)
2* 1 <-- 2
3* 2 <-- 6
4* 6 <-- 24

The recursive function runs and works properly.

The Iterative Factorial function
(No recursion). This is obviously one of many ways to solve this
problem.
long fact( long n ){
long ans = 1;
for(long i = n; i > 1; i--)
ans *= i;
return ans;
}

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