Java™ How To Program (Early Objects), Tenth Edition

18.7 Recursion vs. Iteration

We’ve studied methods factorial and fibonacci, which can easily be implemented either recursively or iteratively. In this section, we compare the two approaches and discuss why you might choose one approach over the other in a particular situation.

Both iteration and recursion are based on a control statement: Iteration uses a repetition statement (e.g., for, while or do...while), whereas recursion uses a selection statement (e.g., if, if...else or switch). Both iteration and recursion involve repetition: Iteration explicitly uses a repetition statement, whereas recursion achieves repetition through repeated method calls. Iteration and recursion each involve a termination test: Iteration terminates when the loop-continuation ...