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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recursion - Glossary | MDN | 1/3 | https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion | reference | web, html, css, javascript, documentation | 2026-05-05T05:42:23.995580+00:00 | kb-cron |
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Recursion
The act of a function calling itself, recursion is used to solve problems that contain smaller sub-problems. A recursive function can receive two inputs: a base case (ends recursion) or a recursive case (resumes recursion).
In this article
Examples
Recursive function calls itself until condition met
The following Python code defines a function that takes a number, prints it, and then calls itself again with the number's value -1. It keeps going until the number is equal to 0, in which case it stops. The output will look like this:
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Recursion is limited by stack size
The following code defines a function that returns the maximum size of the call stack available in the JavaScript runtime in which the code is run.