Intermediate C Programming, 2nd Edition

Chapter 14Recursive C Functions

DOI: 10.1201/9781003257981-14

This chapter converts the mathematical formulas from the previous chapter into C programs. A recursive function usually has the following structure:

return_type func(arguments) {   if (this is the base case) // by checking the arguments    {      solve the problem    }   else // Recursive case    {      return func(simplified arguments) // function calls itself    } }

A recursive function should first check whether the arguments satisfy a stop condition (also called terminating condition or base case) and the function can return the answer. When the condition is true, the problem is simple enough and recursive calls are unnecessary. If the problem is not simple, then the function ...