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Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Data Structures
Data Structures EE432
Fall 2018 - 2019

Data Structures - EE432

Fall 2018- 2019
Lecture - 07

Dr. Abubaker M. F. Abushofa

Department of Electrical & Electronic
Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering
University of Tripoli, Tripoli, LIBYA
 http://www.abushofa.net.ly

What is Recursion?

Data Structures - EE432

Fall 2018- 2019
Recursion like a set of Russian dolls.
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What is a Recursion?
• Recursive call: A method call in which the
method being called is the same as the one

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making the call

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• Direct recursion: Recursion in which a method
directly calls itself
• Indirect recursion: Recursion in which a chain
of two or more method calls returns to the
method that originated the chain

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Recursion
• You must be careful when using recursion.
• Recursive solutions can be less efficient than

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iterative solutions.
• Still, many problems lend themselves to
simple, elegant, recursive solutions.

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Some Definitions
• Base case: The case for which the solution can
be stated non‐recursively

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• General (recursive) case: The case for which

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the solution is expressed in terms of a smaller
version of itself
• Recursive algorithm: A solution that is
expressed in terms of
1. smaller instances of itself and
2. a base case

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Finding a Recursive Solution

• Each successive recursive call should bring you
closer to a situation in which the answer is

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known.

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• A case for which the answer is known (and can
be expressed without recursion) is called a
base case.
• Each recursive algorithm must have at least
one base case, as well as the general
(recursive) case.

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General format for many recursive

functions
if (some condition for which answer is known)

// base case

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solution statement

else // general case

recursive function call

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Computing Factorial
• Recursive definition

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A definition in which something

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is defined in terms of a smaller
version of itself

What is 3 factorial?

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Computing Factorial

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Fall 2018- 2019
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Recursive Computation

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Factorial Program

• The decomposition of Factorial (3) is as

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follows.

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Factorial(3) = 3 x Factorial(2) Factorial(3) = 3 x 2 = 6

Factorial(2) = 2 x Factorial(1) Factorial(2) = 2 x 1 = 2

Factorial(1) = 1 x Factorial(0) Factorial(1) = 1 x 1 = 1

Factorial(0) = 1

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Factorial Program
• The function call Factorial(4) should have
value 24, because that is 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 .

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Fall 2018- 2019
• For a situation in which the answer is known,
the value of 0! is 1.
• So our base case could be along the lines of
if ( number == 0 )
return 1;

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Factorial Program
• Now for the general case . . .
• The value of Factorial(n) can be written as n *

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the product of the numbers from (n ‐ 1) to ,1

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that is,
n * (n ‐ 1) * . . . * 1
or, n * Factorial(n ‐ 1)
• And notice that the recursive call Factorial(n ‐
1) gets us “closer” to the base case of
Factorial(0).

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Recursive Factorial
int Factorial ( int number )
{

Data Structures - EE432

// base case

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if ( number == 0)
return 1 ;
else // general case
return number * Factorial (number – 1);
}

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Three‐Questions for Verifying

Recursive Functions
• Base‐Case Question: Is there a non‐recursive
way out of the function?

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• Smaller‐Caller Question: Does each recursive
function call involve a smaller case of the
original problem leading to the base case?
• General‐Case Question: Assuming each
recursive call works correctly, does the whole
function work correctly?

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Computing Exponentiation Recursively

• From mathematics, we know that
20 = 1 and 25 = 2 * 24

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Fall 2018- 2019
• In general,
x0 = 1 and xn = x * xn‐1
for integer x, and integer n > 0.
• Here we are defining xn recursively, in terms
of xn‐1

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Computing Exponentiation Recursively

// Recursive definition of power function
int Power ( int x, int n )

Data Structures - EE432

{

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if ( n == 0 )
return 1; // base case
else // general case
return ( x * Power ( x , n-1 ) ) ;
}

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Computing Exponentiation Recursively

Example: 53

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power(5,3) = 5 x Power(5,2) power(5,3) = 5 x 25 = 125

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power(5,2) = 5 x 5 = 25
power(5,2) = 5 x power(5,1)

power(5,1) = 5 x power(5,0) power(5,1) = 5 x 1 = 5

power(5,0) = 1
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Fibonacci Sequence
• Problem: Calculate Nth item in Fibonacci
sequence

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0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34,

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55
– What is the next number?
– What is the size of the problem?
– Which case do you know the answer to?
– Which case can you express as a smaller version of
the size?

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Fibonacci Program
int Fibonacci(int n)
{

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if (n == 0 || n == 1)

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return n;
else
return Fibonacci(n-2) + Fibonacci(n-1);
}

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Why Use Recursion?

• Those examples could have been written
without recursion, using iteration instead. The

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iterative solution uses a loop, and the recursive

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solution uses an if statement.
• However, for certain problems the recursive
solution is the most natural solution.
• Recursive solutions are easier to reason about.
• The Functional Programming paradigm adopts
recursion.
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Printing List in Reverse

struct NodeType
{
int info;

Data Structures - EE432

NodeType* next;

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}
class SortedType
{
public:
...
private:
NodeType* listData;
};
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RevPrint(listData)

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Base Case and General Case

• Base case: list is empty
Do nothing

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• General case: list is non‐empty
Extract the first element;
Print rest of the list (may be empty);
Print the first element

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Printing in Reverse
void RevPrint ( NodeType* listPtr )
{

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if ( listPtr != NULL ) { // general case

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RevPrint ( listPtr-> next ); //process the rest
cout << listPtr->info << endl; // print this element
}
// Base case : if the list is empty, do nothing
}

EE432 Dr. Abubaker Abushofa 26/25

 Data Structures - EE432
Fall 2018- 2019
End of lecture
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Any question?
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Data Structures EE432
Fall 2018 - 2019