Tail recursion: Difference between revisions
Content added Content deleted
(Not-too-in-depth summary of tail recursion. Could probably use more information from a CS person or a Scheme person.) |
(Redirecting to Category:Recursion) |
||
| (3 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
#REDIRECT [[:Category:Recursion]] |
|||
[[Category:Encyclopedia]]'''Tail recursion''' is a specific type of recursion where the recursion call is the last call in the function. Because tail recursive functions can easily and automatically be transformed into a normal [[:Category:Iteration|iterative]] functions, tail recursion is used in languages like [[Scheme]] to optimize function calls, while still keeping the function definitions small and easy to read. The actual optimization transforms recursive calls into simple branches (or jumps) with logic to change the arguments for the next run through the function. |
|||
The benefits of this optimization are primarily stack related. Transforming recursive functions into iterative functions can save memory and time. Because memory can be saved, more complex calls can be evaluated without overflowing the stack. |
|||
Latest revision as of 19:33, 1 December 2008
Redirect to: