Recursion

In C programming it is possible to call a function itself.A function is said to be recursive if the statements within the function call itself. a conditional statement is necessary otherwise it will form infinite loop.


#include<stdio.h>
	void recursion(){
		recursion(); //Function calls itself
		if(condition)
			break;
	}
	void main(){
	recursion();
	}

consider the example of factorial of number:


#include<stdio.h>;

		long f;

		long fact (int n)     //2

		{   if(n==1)

				return 1;

		else

				f=n*fact(n-1);

				return f;

		}

		void main()

		{   int n;

			printf("Enter the number : ");

			scanf("%d\n",&n);

			long r;

			r=fact(n); // 1

			printf("Factorial of %d is %ld",n,r);

		}

output:


Enter the number : 5
Factorial of 5 is 120

Lets try to understand the working of recursion :

let 3 is passed to fact function . control enters checks if(3==1) , false . control enters else therefore now f=3*fact (2) , here fact(2) again calls fact function with argument 2 inside.

control again enters checks if(2==1) it is false, control enters 'else' therefore now f=3*2*fact(1) , here fact(1) again calls fact function with argument 1 inside.

control again enters checks if(1==1) it is true it returns 1 . now f=3*2*1 therefore f=6, which it returns to main function.

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