CS2
Recursion
6
Local variables
Each recursive call to the method creates a “new copy” of the
method – all the local variables are created again
• The compiler keeps track of them all so that the programmer
cannot mix them up
nfactorial(4)has a
parameter n equal to 4
nfactorial(3) has its
own parameter n, equal to 3
nfactorial(2) has its own parameter n, equal
to 2
nfactorial(1) has its
own parameter n, equal to 1
• This means that you should not use
recursion to replace
straightforward iteration (like factorial), particularly if
the loops are performed thousands or millions of times.