Introduction to Recursive Programming

By: Manuel Rubio-Sanchez

Write A Review

eText | 5 October 2017 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Format
ePUB

eText

$150.70

or 4 interest-free payments of $37.67 with

Instant online reading in your Booktopia eTextbook Library *

Why choose an eTextbook?

Instant Access *

Purchase and read your book immediately

Read Aloud

Listen and follow along as Bookshelf reads to you

Study Tools

Built-in study tools like highlights and more

* eTextbooks are not downloadable to your eReader or an app and can be accessed via web browsers only. You must be connected to the internet and have no technical issues with your device or browser that could prevent the eTextbook from operating.

Recursion is one of the most fundamental concepts in computer science and a key programming technique that allows computations to be carried out repeatedly. Despite the importance of recursion for algorithm design, most programming books do not cover the topic in detail, despite the fact that numerous computer programming professors and researchers in the field of computer science education agree that recursion is difficult for novice students.

Introduction to Recursive Programming provides a detailed and comprehensive introduction to recursion. This text will serve as a useful guide for anyone who wants to learn how to think and program recursively, by analyzing a wide variety of computational problems of diverse difficulty.

It contains specific chapters on the most common types of recursion (linear, tail, and multiple), as well as on algorithm design paradigms in which recursion is prevalent (divide and conquer, and backtracking). Therefore, it can be used in introductory programming courses, and in more advanced classes on algorithm design. The book also covers lower-level topics related to iteration and program execution, and includes a rich chapter on the theoretical analysis of the computational cost of recursive programs, offering readers the possibility to learn some basic mathematics along the way.

It also incorporates several elements aimed at helping students master the material. First, it contains a larger collection of simple problems in order to provide a solid foundation of the core concepts, before diving into more complex material. In addition, one of the book's main assets is the use of a step-by-step methodology, together with specially designed diagrams, for guiding and illustrating the process of developing recursive algorithms. Furthermore, the book covers combinatorial problems and mutual recursion. These topics can broaden students' understanding of recursion by forcing them to apply the learned concepts differently, or in a more sophisticated manner.

The code examples have been written in Python 3, but should be straightforward to understand for students with experience in other programming languages. Finally, worked out solutions to over 120 end-of-chapter exercises are available for instructors.