Chapter 20 Recursion

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Motivations
Suppose you want to find all the files under a directory that contains a particular word. How do you solve this problem? There are several ways to solve this problem. An intuitive solution is to use recursion by searching the files in the subdirectories recursively.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Eighth Edition, (c) 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 0132130807

Motivations
The Eight Queens puzzle is to place eight queens on a chessboard such that no two queens are on the same row, same column, or same diagonal, as shown in Figure 20.1. How do you write a program to solve this problem? A good approach to solve this problem is to use recursion.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Eighth Edition, (c) 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 0132130807

Objectives

To know what a recursive method is and the benefits of using recursive methods (20.1). To determine the base cases in a recursive method (20.2-20.5). To understand how recursive method calls are handled in a call stack (20.2-20.3). To solve problems using recursion (20.2-20.5). To use an overloaded helper method to derive a recursive method (20.5). To get the directory size using recursion (20.6). To solve the Towers of Hanoi problem using recursion (20.7). To draw fractals using recursion (20.8). To understand the relationship and difference between recursion and iteration (20.9).
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Computing Factorial
factorial(0) = 1; factorial(n) = n*factorial(n-1); n! = n * (n-1)!

ComputeFactorial

Run
5

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animation

Computing Factorial
factorial(0) = 1; factorial(n) = n*factorial(n-1);

factorial(3)

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Eighth Edition, (c) 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 0132130807

animation

Computing Factorial
factorial(0) = 1; factorial(n) = n*factorial(n-1);

factorial(3) = 3 * factorial(2)

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Eighth Edition, (c) 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 0132130807

animation

Computing Factorial
factorial(0) = 1; factorial(n) = n*factorial(n-1);

factorial(3) = 3 * factorial(2) = 3 * (2 * factorial(1))

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Eighth Edition, (c) 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 0132130807

animation

Computing Factorial
factorial(0) = 1; factorial(n) = n*factorial(n-1);

factorial(3) = 3 * factorial(2) = 3 * (2 * factorial(1)) = 3 * ( 2 * (1 * factorial(0)))

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Eighth Edition, (c) 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 0132130807

animation

Computing Factorial
factorial(0) = 1; factorial(n) = n*factorial(n-1);

factorial(3) = 3 * factorial(2) = 3 * (2 * factorial(1)) = 3 * ( 2 * (1 * factorial(0))) = 3 * ( 2 * ( 1 * 1)))

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animation

Computing Factorial
factorial(0) = 1; factorial(n) = n*factorial(n-1);

factorial(3) = 3 * factorial(2) = 3 * (2 * factorial(1)) = 3 * ( 2 * (1 * factorial(0))) = 3 * ( 2 * ( 1 * 1))) = 3 * ( 2 * 1)

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11

animation

Computing Factorial
factorial(0) = 1; factorial(n) = n*factorial(n-1);

factorial(3) = 3 * factorial(2) = 3 * (2 * factorial(1)) = 3 * ( 2 * (1 * factorial(0))) = 3 * ( 2 * ( 1 * 1))) = 3 * ( 2 * 1) =3*2

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12

animation

Computing Factorial
factorial(0) = 1; factorial(n) = n*factorial(n-1);

factorial(3) = 3 * factorial(2) = 3 * (2 * factorial(1)) = 3 * ( 2 * (1 * factorial(0))) = 3 * ( 2 * ( 1 * 1))) = 3 * ( 2 * 1) =3*2 =6

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13

animation

Trace Recursive factorial

Executes factorial(4)
factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

Main method

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animation

Trace Recursive factorial

factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4)

Executes factorial(3)
return 4 * factorial(3) Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2)

Step 8: return 6

Step 7: return 2

Step 2: executes factorial(2)

Stack

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

Space Required for factorial(4) Main method

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animation

Trace Recursive factorial

factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

Executes factorial(2)

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Main method

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

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animation

Trace Recursive factorial

factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

Executes factorial(1)

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

Space Required for factorial(2) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Main method

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

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17

animation

Trace Recursive factorial

factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

Executes factorial(0)

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

Space Required for factorial(1) Space Required for factorial(2) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Main method

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

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animation

Trace Recursive factorial

factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

returns 1

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

Space Required for factorial(0) Space Required for factorial(1) Space Required for factorial(2) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Main method

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

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animation

Trace Recursive factorial

factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

returns factorial(0)

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

Space Required for factorial(1) Space Required for factorial(2) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Main method

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

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animation

Trace Recursive factorial

factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

returns factorial(1)

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

Space Required for factorial(2) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Main method

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

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animation

Trace Recursive factorial

factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

returns factorial(2)

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Main method

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

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22

animation

Trace Recursive factorial

factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

returns factorial(3)

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

Space Required for factorial(4) Main method

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animation

Trace Recursive factorial

returns factorial(4)
factorial(4) Step 9: return 24 Step 0: executes factorial(4) return 4 * factorial(3) Step 8: return 6 Step 1: executes factorial(3) return 3 * factorial(2) Step 7: return 2 Step 2: executes factorial(2)
Stack

return 2 * factorial(1) Step 6: return 1 Step 3: executes factorial(1)

return 1 * factorial(0) Step 4: executes factorial(0) Step 5: return 1 return 1

Main method

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factorial(4) Stack Trace

Required 5 Space for factorial(0) Required 4 Space for factorial(1) Required 3 Space for factorial(2) Required 2 Space for factorial(3) Required 1 Space for factorial(4) Space Required for factorial(4) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Space Required for factorial(2) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Space Required for factorial(1) Space Required for factorial(2) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4)

Required 6 Space for factorial(1) Space Required for factorial(2) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Required 7 Space for factorial(2) Space Required for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Required 8 Space for factorial(3) Space Required for factorial(4) Required 9 Space for factorial(4)

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Other Examples
f(0) = 0;

f(n) = n + f(n-1);

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Fibonacci Numbers
Fibonacci series: 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 indices: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

fib(0) = 0;
fib(1) = 1; fib(index) = fib(index -1) + fib(index -2); index >=2

fib(3) = fib(2) + fib(1) = (fib(1) + fib(0)) + fib(1) = (1 + 0) +fib(1) = 1 + fib(1) = 1 + 1 = 2

ComputeFibonacci

Run
27

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Fibonnaci Numbers, cont.

fib(4)
17: return fib(4) 0: call fib(4)

return fib(3) + fib(2)

10: return fib(3) 1: call fib(3) 16: return fib(2)

11: call fib(2)

return fib(2) + fib(1)

7: return fib(2) 2: call fib(2) 9: return fib(1) 5: call fib(0) 3: call fib(1) 8: call fib(1) 13: return fib(1)

return fib(1) + fib(0)

14: return fib(0) 12: call fib(1) 15: return fib(0)

return fib(1) + fib(0)

4: return fib(1)

return 1

return 1

return 0

return 1

6: return fib(0)

return 0

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28

Characteristics of Recursion
All recursive methods have the following characteristics:
One or more base cases (the simplest case) are used to stop recursion. Every recursive call reduces the original problem, bringing it increasingly closer to a base case until it becomes that case.

In general, to solve a problem using recursion, you break it into subproblems. If a subproblem resembles the original problem, you can apply the same approach to solve the subproblem recursively. This subproblem is almost the same as the original problem in nature with a smaller size.
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29

Problem Solving Using Recursion

Let us consider a simple problem of printing a message for n times. You can break the problem into two subproblems: one is to print the message one time and the other is to print the message for n-1 times. The second problem is the same as the original problem with a smaller size. The base case for the problem is n==0. You can solve this problem using recursion as follows:
public static void nPrintln(String message, int times) { if (times >= 1) { System.out.println(message); nPrintln(message, times - 1); } // The base case is times == 0 }
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Think Recursively
Many of the problems presented in the early chapters can be solved using recursion if you think recursively. For example, the palindrome problem in Listing 7.1 can be solved recursively as follows:
public static boolean isPalindrome(String s) { if (s.length() <= 1) // Base case return true; else if (s.charAt(0) != s.charAt(s.length() - 1)) // Base case return false; else return isPalindrome(s.substring(1, s.length() - 1)); }
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31

Recursive Helper Methods

The preceding recursive isPalindrome method is not efficient, because it creates a new string for every recursive call. To avoid creating new strings, use a helper method:
public static boolean isPalindrome(String s) { return isPalindrome(s, 0, s.length() - 1); } public static boolean isPalindrome(String s, int low, int high) { if (high <= low) // Base case return true; else if (s.charAt(low) != s.charAt(high)) // Base case return false; else return isPalindrome(s, low + 1, high - 1); }
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Recursive Selection Sort

1.

2.

Find the largest number in the list and swaps it with the last number. Ignore the last number and sort the remaining smaller list recursively.

RecursiveSelectionSort

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Recursive Binary Search

1.

2.
3.

Case 1: If the key is less than the middle element, recursively search the key in the first half of the array. Case 2: If the key is equal to the middle element, the search ends with a match. Case 3: If the key is greater than the middle element, recursively search the key in the second half of the array.
RecursiveBinarySort

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Recursive Implementation
/** Use binary search to find the key in the list */ public static int recursiveBinarySearch(int[] list, int key) { int low = 0; int high = list.length - 1; return recursiveBinarySearch(list, key, low, high); } /** Use binary search to find the key in the list between list[low] list[high] */ public static int recursiveBinarySearch(int[] list, int key, int low, int high) { if (low > high) // The list has been exhausted without a match return -low - 1; int mid = (low + high) / 2; if (key < list[mid]) return recursiveBinarySearch(list, key, low, mid - 1); else if (key == list[mid]) return mid; else return recursiveBinarySearch(list, key, mid + 1, high); }
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Directory Size
The preceding examples can easily be solved without using recursion. This section presents a problem that is difficult to solve without using recursion. The problem is to find the size of a directory. The size of a directory is the sum of the sizes of all files in the directory. A directory may contain subdirectories. Suppose a directory contains files , , ..., , and subdirectories , , ..., , as shown below.
directory

f1

f2

...

fm

d1

d2

...

dn

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36

Directory Size
The size of the directory can be defined recursively as follows:
size( d ) size( f1 ) size( f 2 ) ... size( f m ) size(d1 ) size(d 2 ) ... size( d n )

DirectorySize

Run

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37

Towers of Hanoi
There

are n disks labeled 1, 2, 3, . . ., n, and three towers labeled A, B, and C. No disk can be on top of a smaller disk at any time. All the disks are initially placed on tower A. Only one disk can be moved at a time, and it must be the top disk on the tower.

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Towers of Hanoi, cont.

A B Original position C A B Step 4: Move disk 3 from A to B C

B Step 1: Move disk 1 from A to B

B Step 5: Move disk 1 from C to A

B Step 2: Move disk 2 from A to C

B Step 6: Move disk 2 from C to B

B Step 3: Move disk 1 from B to C

B Step 7: Mve disk 1 from A to B

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39

Solution to Towers of Hanoi

The Towers of Hanoi problem can be decomposed into three subproblems.
n-1 disks n-1 disks

. . .

. . .

B Original position

B Step2: Move disk n from A to C

n-1 disks

n-1 disks

. . .

. . .

B Step3: Move n-1 disks from C to B recursively

Step 1: Move the first n-1 disks from A to C recursively

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40

Solution to Towers of Hanoi

Move the first n - 1 disks from A to C with the assistance of tower B. Move disk n from A to B. Move n - 1 disks from C to B with the assistance of tower A.

TowersOfHanoi

Run
41

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Exercise 20.3 GCD

gcd(2, 3) = 1 gcd(2, 10) = 2 gcd(25, 35) = 5 gcd(205, 301) = 5 gcd(m, n) Approach 1: Brute-force, start from min(n, m) down to 1, to check if a number is common divisor for both m and n, if so, it is the greatest common divisor. Approach 2: Euclids algorithm Approach 3: Recursive method
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42

Approach 2: Euclids algorithm

// Get absolute value of m and n; t1 = Math.abs(m); t2 = Math.abs(n); // r is the remainder of t1 divided by t2; r = t1 % t2; while (r != 0) { t1 = t2; t2 = r; r = t1 % t2; }

// When r is 0, t2 is the greatest common // divisor between t1 and t2 return t2;

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43

Approach 3: Recursive Method

gcd(m, n) = n if m % n = 0; gcd(m, n) = gcd(n, m % n); otherwise;

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44

Fractals?
A fractal is a geometrical figure just like triangles, circles, and rectangles, but fractals can be divided into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole. There are many interesting examples of fractals. This section introduces a simple fractal, called Sierpinski triangle, named after a famous Polish mathematician.
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45

Sierpinski Triangle
1.

2.
3.

4.

It begins with an equilateral triangle, which is considered to be the Sierpinski fractal of order (or level) 0, as shown in Figure (a). Connect the midpoints of the sides of the triangle of order 0 to create a Sierpinski triangle of order 1, as shown in Figure (b). Leave the center triangle intact. Connect the midpoints of the sides of the three other triangles to create a Sierpinski of order 2, as shown in Figure (c). You can repeat the same process recursively to create a Sierpinski triangle of order 3, 4, ..., and so on, as shown in Figure (d).

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46

Sierpinski Triangle Solution

p1

midBetweenP1P2

midBetweenP3P1

p2 midBetweenP2P3

p3

SierpinskiTriangle

Run
47

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Eight Queens
queens[0] queens[1] queens[2] queens[3] queens[4] queens[5] queens[6] queens[7] 0 4 7 5 2 6 1 3

EightQueens

Run
48

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Eight Queens
0 0 1 2 upleft 3 4 5 6 7 1 check colum n 2 3 4 5 6 7

upright diagonal

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