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34
votes
18answers
6k views

In plain English, what is recursion?

The idea of recursion is not very common in real world. So, it seems a bit confusing to the novice programmers. Though, I guess, they become used to the concept gradually. So, what can be a nice ...
8
votes
9answers
540 views

Resources for improving your comprehension of recursion? [closed]

I know what recursion is (when a patten reoccurs within itself, typically a function that calls itself on one of its lines, after a breakout conditional... right?), and I can understand recursive ...
7
votes
7answers
1k views

Is recursion an instance of being “too clever” when programming?

I've read several books and learned through experience that optimizing code to the point where it is inscrutable, or coming up with an extremely fast but extremely complex solution to a problem is not ...
5
votes
5answers
469 views

What is the difference between “recursion” and “self-reference”?

The wikipedia articles are too advanced for me to understand, could someone give me a simple explanation please?
18
votes
9answers
1k views

What are some games involving recursion?

I need to introduce a group of 5-15 people to recursion and I would like to do so by using a physical game/dance/activity they can play to get a feeling for recursion. The class is not so much focused ...
5
votes
6answers
846 views

Can all the recursive functions be coded with iterations?

What are the advantages of recursion? Some programming languages can optimize tail recursion, but, still in general terms, recursion consume more resources than regular loops. Is it possible to ...