recursion

4 definitions found

recursion - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

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

recursion - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  recursion
      n 1: (mathematics) an expression such that each term is
           generated by repeating a particular mathematical operation

recursion - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  recursion
  mutually recursive
  mutual recursion
  recurse
  recursive
  
     <mathematics, programming> 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)
  

recursion - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  recursion
   n.
  
     See recursion. See also tail recursion.