Recursion in Actual Java Programming
Abstract
Recursion has been used in programming since the 1960s. The purpose of the study is to identify the place of recursion in actual Java programming for the preparation of a university course. The materials were 19 books on Java describing recursion, as well as articles on mental models of recursion. We have the following results of the study. Recursion is, first of all, a technique and a tool. Recursion is described in books together with the concepts of stack overflow, tail recursion, tail call optimization (TCO), and finite or infinite. TCO can be converted into iterations by techniques or integrated development environment (IDE). The book authors prefer calculation of factorial and Fibonacci numbers, binary search, MergeSort, QuickSort, Towers of Hanoi as examples of recursion. Most authors devote a chapter to recursion. Programmers prefer iteration in many problems. In rare cases (such as tree traversal), most programmers (over 51%) use recursion. The most viable mental model is the Copies Model. There are rules for designing recursive methods. When teaching recursion, it is necessary to carefully select assignments. We have not found an exact answer to the question of when to use recursion. Recursion is used when solving well-defined problems in recursive fashion. Recursion has a strong place in Java programming. We will not include recursion in the course of introductory programming, but we will include it in the course of algorithms and data structures. Recursion in actual Java programming is not necessary, merely useful.
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