Learning JavaScript Data Structures and Algorithms - Third Edition

Understanding recursion

There is a famous programming wisdom quote that says:

“To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.”

                                                                                                      - Unknown

Recursion is a method to solve problems that consist of solving smaller portions of the same problem until you solve the original, larger problem. It usually involves calling the function itself.

A method or function is recursive if it can call itself directly, as follows:

function recursiveFunction(someParam){
  recursiveFunction(someParam);
}

A function is also called recursive if it can call itself indirectly, as follows:

function recursiveFunction1(someParam){ recursiveFunction2(someParam); ...