Java Recursion

Welcome to my Java Recursion tutorial. In this video, I'm going to cover java recursion in 5 different ways. I figured if I show it using many different diagrams that it will make complete sense.

A recursive method is just a method that calls itself. As these calls are made the problem gets simpler until you reach a condition that leads to the method no longer making calls upon itself. This is known as the base case.

[derekbanas]

Learn in One Videos for Every Programming Language

[elicompton]

In order to understand recursion, you must first understand recursion

[daniels]

I spent 3 semesters in computer science courses avoiding recursion like the plague. I have had only excellent teachers, but never nailed down the nuances that kept recursion confusing. Here I am, at 4 am the night before my final and you absolutely nailed it (it was the going back up concept, among other things). Progressing in this field can be difficult, and I am very thankful for your tutorials. You must love what you do!

[howchen]

I spent so long on the first recursive function thinking he passed in 1.6

[derekbanas]

I'm extremely grateful to be able to help in what ever way I can. Thankfully there are thousands of people that love to teach and that number will continue to grow. Eventually a complete education on every topic will be available for free to all across the globe.

[derekbanas]

I have been programming for over 25 years. In the beginning I studied constantly, but now I pretty much have my system and I follow it. I write code for about 1/2 the day 7 days a week. I keep up on the new technologies, but I mainly still use Java, C, C++, PHP and JavaScript for everything. I am very lucky in that I can decide what projects I want to work on, so I'm always excited to program. I mainly write programs with a ton of math, or simulations

[derekbanas]

Thank you :) Im very happy I was able to help. I worked as a programming architect for many years and one of my responsibilities was to train new hires. I always enjoyed doing that. While making these videos I imagine someone is standing behind me and learning. It makes me very happy to be able to help

[sandblaster]

I know this video is from 2013 but I couldn't wrap my head around recursion at all until I watched this. I'm a freshman in college with a great teacher but she wasn't able to explain it this well. Thanks so much! :D

[YouBanz]

I think it's worth mentioning that this implementation of merge sort, with in-place index shifting on an array, is O(n^2). Merge sort is usually taught using substructures and is O(nlg(n)).

[yaanyfizzle]

I just watched 3 tutorials, got absolutely nowhere, and within the 1st 50 seconds of this video you explained it! Derek Banas > All

[iNewbieNick]

This is my first year in college and I'm majoring in computer science. Our professor just tried to teach us about recursion but didn't do it very well and left the class thinking "WHAT JUST HAPPENED. WHY DID THAT WORK!?!?!", myself included. I've had an issue where I haven't been able to comment on videos for a year and was too lazy to fix it. This video was so helpful, and I'm so grateful, that I got off my lazy ass and figured out how to fix my problem just so I could comment on this video and thank you. Thank you for teaching me about this confusing concept!! You're the best!

[SoeaOu]

Thank You. I was so afraid of recursion and the fact that i couldn't come up myself how to do factorials using recursion, but when I saw the third example I made it myself, so easy :D I think this are the best intermidiate/advanced java tutorials on the internet.

[derekbanas]

I'm happy that I could clear it up. I don't know why so many people struggle with teaching this topic?

[loganphillips]

Wow thank you so much. My data structures text book didn't explain at all how this works. I ran an example in the debugger and was extremely confused why it went "back up" once it hit the base case. You cleared it up in the first 2 minutes. Thank you!

[derekbanas]

Pick projects that are fun. I only work on fun projects. When I was young and just starting with programming I made games and nothing else because games are fun to make. Games also require you to know many things. Don't try to memorize because that will just bore you. Instead come up with an idea, copy and paste others code and then just fix the errors. Once you get past the basics programming is very fun

[japanuser]

Caro Coach,

La tendenza sarà in vita fino a quando si ottiene il tutorial grandi.

Tu sei la ragione per la nostra capacità di migliori.

Più potenza per voi.

grazie

[WhoForgotFlush]

I actually came here because I was trying to make a merge sort algorithm and wanted a better understanding of recursion before starting. Thanks for covering merge sort too very helpful.

[nicolaslondono]

You are the god father of programming tutorials!

[sebastianfarias]

wow, every time I struggle with x/y concept there is a video in your channel that helps me understand it 100%... Again, thank you

[derekbanas]

I'm glad it helped :) I figured if I provided enough walkthroughs that it would make sense