What are the differences between recursion and iteration in Java?

Java Object Oriented Programming Programming

The Recursion and Iteration both repeatedly execute the set of instructions. Recursion is when a statement in a function calls itself repeatedly. The iteration is when a loop repeatedly executes until the controlling condition becomes false. The primary difference between recursion and iteration is that recursion is a process, always applied to a function and iteration is applied to the set of instructions which we want to get repeatedly executed.

Recursion

Recursion uses selection structure.
Infinite recursion occurs if the recursion step does not reduce the problem in a manner that converges on some condition (base case) and Infinite recursion can crash the system.
Recursion terminates when a base case is recognized.
Recursion is usually slower than iteration due to the overhead of maintaining the stack.
Recursion uses more memory than iteration.
Recursion makes the code smaller.

Example

Live Demo

public class RecursionExample {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      RecursionExample re = new RecursionExample();
      int result = re.factorial(4);
      System.out.println("Result:" + result);
   }
   public int factorial(int n) {
      if (n==0) {
         return 1;
      }
      else {
         return n*factorial(n-1);
      }
   }
}

Output

Result:24

Iteration

Iteration uses repetition structure.
An infinite loop occurs with iteration if the loop condition test never becomes false and Infinite looping uses CPU cycles repeatedly.
An iteration terminates when the loop condition fails.
An iteration does not use the stack so it's faster than recursion.
Iteration consumes less memory.
Iteration makes the code longer.

Example

Live Demo

public class IterationExample {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      for(int i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
         System.out.println(i + " ");
      }
   }
}

Output

raja

Updated on 30-Jul-2019 22:30:26

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