Recursion

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Recursion \Re*cur"sion\ (-sh?n), n. [L. recursio. See {Recur}.]
     The act of recurring; return. [Obs.] --Boyle.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:



  recursion
       n : (mathematics) an expression such that each term is generated
           by repeating a particular mathematical operation

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  recursion n. See {recursion}. See also {tail recursion}.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  recursion
       
           When a {function} (or {procedure})
          calls itself.  Such a function is called "recursive".  If the
          call is via one or more other functions then this group of
          functions are called "mutually recursive".
       
          If a function will always call itself, however it is called,
          then it will never terminate.  Usually however, it first
          performs some test on its arguments to check for a "base case"
          - a condition under which it can return a value without
          calling itself.
       
          The {canonical} example of a recursive function is
          {factorial}:
       
          	factorial 0 = 1
          	factorial n = n * factorial (n-1)
       
          {Functional programming languages} rely heavily on recursion,
          using it where a {procedural language} would use {iteration}.
       
          See also {recursion}, {recursive definition}, {tail recursion}.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1996-05-11)