what the point of recursion?

[Blessman11]

What is the point of recursion when all it does is weighing down the memory when large recursions are used? The reason I got this feeling was when looking at Fibonacci functions, which seem as if they can be efficiently done by using the iterative technique.

int fibo(int n)
{
	if (n <= 1)
  {return n;}
	else
   {return fibo(n-1)+fibo(n-2);}

}

int main ()
{
	for (int i = 0;i <= 10; i++)
	{
	cout << fibo(i)<<endl;
	}
	cin.get();
	return 0;
}

//This is the more efficient one for larger numbers

//iter version of fibo
//normal iter Fibo
int Fibonacci2(int nNumber)
{
int fibnum = 0, fibminus2 = 0, fibminus1 = 1;

if (nNumber == 0) return 0;
if (nNumber == 1) return 1;

for (int i=2; i <= nNumber; i++){

fibnum = fibminus1 + fibminus2;

cout << fibnum << endl;

fibminus2 = fibminus1;
fibminus1 = fibnum;

}

return fibnum;
}

[hamsterman]

Have fun writing a non recursive quicksort (I'm not saying that it's not possible though).

[Athar]

Recursion makes the implementation of all algorithms where "divide and conquer" can be applied much easier.
Calculating fibonacci numbers is obviously not one of these, so it would be stupid to use recursion for that.
A good example where recursion makes things easier are the Towers of Hanoi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Hanoi#Recursive_solution

[Moschops]

Didn't we already have this thread? People just swap out "recursion" for "pointers/templates/classes/C++/overloading/theCommandLine" or anything else they happen to have no use for right at this second and can't imagine that anyone else ever would.

Maybe we should make a new article thread, "What's the use of xxx?" so we can just point people towards it when they ask.

[webJose]

Another classic recursion: Traverse a tree of some sort (BST, a folder structure, XML/HTML parser, etc.).

[rocktheartsm4l]

These guys are right recursion has its uses. If you can't understand why now just trust us. You will find a place in code where 3 lines of recursion can handle what many lines of iteration can handle.