recursion : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: recursion	by the DICT Development Group
4 results for recursion
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
recursion n (mathematics) an expression such that each term is generated by repeating a particular mathematical operation
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Recursion \Re*cur"sion\ (-sh?n), n. [L. recursio. See {Recur}.] The act of recurring; return. [Obs.] --Boyle.
From Jargon File (4.2.0, 31 JAN 2000) [jargon]:
recursion n. See {recursion}. See also {tail recursion}.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]:
recursion 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)