The Recursive Book of Recursion

8 Tail Call Optimization

In the previous chapter, we covered using memoization to optimize recursive functions. This chapter explores a technique called tail call optimization, which is a feature provided by a compiler or interpreter to avoid stack overflows. Tail call optimization is also called tail call elimination, or tail recursion elimination.

This chapter is meant to explain tail call optimization, not to endorse it. I would go so far as to recommend never using tail call optimization. As you’ll see, rearranging your function’s code to use tail call optimization often makes it far less understandable. You should consider tail call ...