Java™ How to Program, Seventh Edition

Summary

Section 15.1 Introduction

• A recursive method calls itself directly or indirectly through another method.

• When a recursive method is called to solve a problem, the method actually is capable of solving only the simplest case(s), or base case(s). If it is called with a base case, the method returns a result.

Section 15.2 Recursion Concepts

• If a recursive method is called with a more complex problem than a base case, it typically divides the problem into two conceptual pieces—a piece that the method knows how to do and a piece that the method does not know how to do.

• To make recursion feasible, the piece that the method does not know how to do must resemble the original problem, but be a slightly simpler or smaller version of it. Because ...