What Is Recursion - In Depth

Recursion is one of the most confusing topics you will run into when you start to learn programming. The idea of a function calling itself just seems strange and keeping track of the call stack seems impossible. In this video I will be breaking down recursion in as simple terms as possible, and then going through three in depth examples of recursion.

In the recursion examples we will take iterative functions and convert them to recursive functions to help us understand how to write a recursive function. Having the iterative function to start with will make it easier to connect how the recursive function works. I will also go through the entire call stack of the recursive function to make understanding the inner workings of recursion easier. By the end of this video you will have an in depth understanding of recursion and be able to use it in your own projects.

📚 Materials/References:

🧠 Concepts Covered:

- What recursion is
- Why recursion is important
- How to convert iterative functions to recursive function
- How to avoid infinite recursive loops
- When recursive functions are better

🌎 Find Me Here:

#Recursion #Recursive #JavaScript

[baronfuller]

This guy is for sure my go to when needing to learn a topic. Would recommend to anyone.

[ozzyfromspace]

This is a hundred times better than when my professor tried to teach our class recursion. Boy, that was a train wreck 😂. You're a national treasure, Kyle! Thanks so much for everything you do 🏆☮️🙌🏽🎊

[quintenkamphuis]

Hi from The Odin Project! I coded along and am very proud to say that I got every single one exactly right.

[AnnieTaylorChen]

Wow that's smart. I really like the last family-tree example as it makes a lot of sense than pure code. ^^ You truly have the talent to make the newbie-devs' life easier.

[IkeVictor]

i have watched 15 recursion videos and this seems to be the most clear and concise. Congrats, here is your trophy 🏆

[VladdyHell]

Recursion is the most confusing concept aside from asynchronous programming even though I've read from a lot of resources, but you explained it very very well and it's actually very easy, your explanation is just 🔥

[theretroman]

Freakin' finally! I understand recursive functions! Not only that, but now I am starting to see how algorithms play a role in making the life easier!
Thank you so much man! \m/

[FromTheHeart-]

You are a blessing to me. Just want you to know. You get straight to the point and use realistic examples. I have passed your channel to fellow students in my bootstrap. Thanks for everything.

[justinreeves]

What makes your videos so good is the thought that goes into creating the examples to explain. So many other authors "showboat" overly complex examples to show how clever they are, which completely misses the point. You nail it every time. Cheers Kyle.

[mohammedalmukhtar]

Thanks for this video, Kyle! I used it to create a factorial function
function printFactorial(n, total=1) {
if(n<=1) {
return console.log("The Factorial is "+total);
}
return printFactorial(n-1, total*n);
}

[nizamuddinshaikh]

Vow, so tough a topic, so simple an explanation! Wonderful tutorial! Thank you Kyle. 👍😃

[SnowblindHallur]

Recently bumped into your channel and just have to say you deserve mad props. Your videos are so simply explained and straight to the point. Keep it up!

[STUPIDYOUTUBE_HIDINGMSGS]

I wished I should have seen this before I took my technical exam! I was using iterative approach all the time (for, forEach) and I didn't have the recursive mindset! You are so awesome man! The detailed way of how you teach, and how you look after your hair! Just great! Go Selsun

[keerthans]

Learning Recursion was impossible until I watched your video sir. This video also helped me to revise complex array and arrow function.

[da]

By far the best explanation for recursion Ive come across, well done and thank you

[MrChrisJ]

Man the web needs more ppl like you. Very good communicator, I am gonna subscribe to one of your courses based on this one lesson

[jadekinstudio]

Thanks! I was really rusty in recursion and now makes sense again!

[kirtanthakkar]

Such an amazing way to explain recursion! This is exactly what I wanted! 🙌 Thank you! :)

[iyobosajefferson]

This is great! Never seen such a video wonderfully explaining recursion!

[FlightNSurf]

Wow. After years of CS. I finally understand recursion dude. Thank you dude!