Recursion Problems

Definitions

Define the following:

• Recursion
• Recursive Case
• Base Case
• Activation Chain/Stack
• Activation Record/Call
• Infinite Recursion/Stack Overflow/Stack too deep
• Tail Recursion

Tracing through a recursive method

Trace #1

def mystery1(n)
  if n == 1
    return n
  else
    return n + mystery1(n-1)
  end
end

• What is mystery1(5)?
• What is mystery1(10)?
• What is mystery1(0)?

Trace #2

def mystery2(n)
  if n < 10
    return n
  else
    return (n%10) + mystery2(n/10)
  end
end

• What is mystery2(123)?
• What is mystery2(9005)?
• What is mystery2(-123)?
• Added Fun: How could we make mystery2(-123) work the way we might expect it to work instead of the way it does?

Trace #3

def mystery3(n)
  if n == 0
    return 100
  elsif n == -1
    return 200
  end
  if n%2 == 0
    return mystery3(n/2)
  else
    return mystery3(n-1)
  end
end

• What is mystery3(1)?
• What is mystery3(13)?
• What is mystery3(-6)?

Trace #4

def mystery4(b,e)
  if e == 0
    return 1
  else
    return b * mystery4(b,e-1)
  end
end

• What is mystery4(10,2)?
• What is mystery4(4,3)?
• What is mystery4(5,0)?

Trace #5

def mystery5(s)
  if s.length == 0
    return ""
  else
    return "*" + mystery5(s[1..-1])
  end
end

• What is mystery5("hi")?
• What is mystery5("")?
• What is mystery5("Hi, there!")?
• Added Fun: How could we make only alphabetic characters to be changed to stars?

Trace #6

def mystery6(s)
  if s == nil || s.length == 0
    return ""
  else
    space = 0
    until space >= s.length || s[space] == " "
      space += 1
    end
    return mystery6(s[(space+1)..-1]) + " " + s[0...space]
  end
end

• What is mystery6("goodnight moon")?
• What is mystery6("Ada Developers Academy")?
• What is mystery6("Hi, there!")?
• Added Fun: How could we make the reversal happen by letter, instead of by word (i.e. Make it so that mystery6("goodnight moon") returned "noom thgindoog")?

Trace #7

def mystery7(word)
  if word.length < 2
    return true
  elsif word[0] != word[-1]
    return false
  else
    return mystery7(word[1..-2])
  end
end

• What is mystery7("cupcake")?
• What is mystery7("detected")?
• What is mystery7("eye")?