15. Recursion

We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world.

—James William Fulbright

O! thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint.

—William Shakespeare

It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.

—Lewis Carroll

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

—Soren Kierkegaard

Push on—keep moving.

—Thomas Morton

Objectives

In this chapter you will learn:

  • The concept of recursion.

  • How to write and use recursive methods.

  • How to determine the base case and recursion step in a recursive algorithm.

  • How recursive method ...

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