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---
title: "Recursion - Glossary | MDN"
chunk: 1/3
source: "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion"
category: "reference"
tags: "web, html, css, javascript, documentation"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T05:42:23.995580+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---
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1. [Glossary](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary)
2. [Recursion](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion)
# 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](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion#examples)
* [See also](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion#see_also)
## [Examples](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion#examples)
### [Recursive function calls itself until condition met](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion#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:
```
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
```
### [Recursion is limited by stack size](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion#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.
### [Common usage examples](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion#common_usage_examples)
#### Factorial
#### Fibonacci
#### Reduce
## [See also](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Recursion#see_also)
* [Recursion (computer science)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursion_\(computer_science\)) on Wikipedia
* [More details about recursion in JavaScript](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Functions#recursion)
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