Why recursive algorithms are difficult to implement in programming language?

Answer 1

Recursive algorithms work in an opposite direction as compared to normal algorithms or loops.

First the recursion occurs then it back tracks, both of these steps combine to give what a loop does in one single step. But values may change in both the steps, thus complicating the algorithm.

For eg:

int fact(int n) for(i=1;i<=3;i++)

{ {

if(n!=1) fact=fact*i;

return(n*(n-1)); }

else return fact;

return 1;

}

Here suppose you take n as 3, then first n decreases to 1 after that for each value returned, it multiplies with the previous returned value. Hence giving the answer 6. But in case of for loop it works linearly...