Need a short explanation on recursion - recursion

i have a quick question on a recursion in Java. This is the code:
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
System.out.println(f(g(n)));
}
public static int f(int x) {
if (x == 0) return 1;
else return f(x / 2) + g(x - 1);
}
public static int g(int x) {
if (x == 0) return 2;
else return g(x / 2) + f(x - 1);
}
For example: the functional value of f(g(1)) is 9, the functional value of f(g(2)) is 30.
Now, I am new to recursion and I understand how "simple" recursion work with one function but I don't understand how f(g(1)) equals 9. Could someone give me a quick walkthrough for me to understand?
Thanks in advance!

First, g(1) is executed.
g(1) => return g(1/2)+f(1-1) = return g(0) + f(0)
g(0) = 2, f(0) = 1
g(1) returns 3
so, f(3) is executed now.
f(3) => return f(3/2) + g(2) = return f(1) + g(2)
f(1) = return f(0) + g(0) = 3
g(2) = return g(1) + f(1), which we know to be 3 + 3.
So, g(2) = 6,f(1) = 3. Thus, f(3) = 9
hope this helps

Related

Writing a factorial() function without distinction between 0 and other numbers

This question has been bugging me for quite a while: is it possible to write a factorial function (in any programming language) without any if statement (or similar) which returns 1 when called with 0 as argument too?
Many factorial functions are something like this (Python):
def factorial(n):
for x in range(1, n):
n *= x
return n if n > 0 else 1
But I don't know if it can be done without distinction between varied values of n... What do you think? It is not a matter of speed and optimizing, just my curiosity.
0! is defined as 1.
Here are the results from my code.
0 factorial = 1
1 factorial = 1
2 factorial = 2
3 factorial = 6
10 factorial = 3628800
And here's Java code with no if statement,
package com.ggl.testing;
public class Factorial {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 0;
System.out.println(n + " factorial = " + factorial(n));
n = 1;
System.out.println(n + " factorial = " + factorial(n));
n = 2;
System.out.println(n + " factorial = " + factorial(n));
n = 3;
System.out.println(n + " factorial = " + factorial(n));
n = 10;
System.out.println(n + " factorial = " + factorial(n));
}
public static long factorial(int n) {
long product = 1L;
for (int i = 2; i <= n; i++) {
product *= (long) i;
}
return product;
}
}
Here's a Haskell version:
factorial n = product [1 .. n]
Not sure if that's considered cheating, though.
There are many ways to calculate the factorial of a number with code.
The original question shows how to do it by recursion, one answer shows how to use a for loop. The same could be achieved by a while loop.
Another answer shows the product function of an array in Haskell (similar to prod(1:n) in Matlab).
Another way to calculate factorial of n (including n=0) in Javascript whithout using a loop is:
function factorial(n){
return (new Array(n)).join().split(",").map((x,i) => i+1).reduce((x,y) => x*y)
}
def factor(n):
fact=1
for i in range (1,n+1):
fact= fact*1
return fact
try:
x=int(input('Input a number to find the factiorial: '))
print(factor(x))
except:
print('Number should be an integer')
x=int(input('Input a number to find the factiorial: '))
print(factor(x))
Hope this helps you!

sequence of numbers using recursion

I want to compute sequence of numbers like this:
n*(n-1)+n*(n-1)*(n-2)+n*(n-1)*(n-2)*(n-3)+n*(n-1)*(n-2)*(n-3)*(n-4)+...+n(n-1)...(n-n)
For example n=5 and sum equals 320.
I have a function, which compute one element:
int fac(int n, int s)
{
if (n > s)
return n*fac(n - 1, s);
return 1;
}
Recomputing the factorial for each summand is quite wasteful. Instead, I'd suggest to use memoization. If you reorder
n*(n-1) + n*(n-1)*(n-2) + n*(n-1)*(n-2)*(n-3) + n*(n-1)*(n-2)*(n-3)*...*1
you get
n*(n-1)*(n-2)*(n-3)*...*1 + n*(n-1)*(n-2)*(n-3) + n*(n-1)*(n-2) + n*(n-1)
Notice how you start with the product of 1..n, then you add the product of 1..n divided by 1, then you add the product divided by 1*2 etc.
I think a much more efficient definition of your function is (in Python):
def f(n):
p = product(range(1, n+1))
sum_ = p
for i in range(1, n-1):
p /= i
sum_ += p
return sum_
A recursive version of this definition is:
def f(n):
def go(sum_, i):
if i >= n-1:
return sum_
return sum_ + go(sum_ / i, i+1)
return go(product(range(1, n+1)), 1)
Last but not least, you can also define the function without any explicit recursion by using reduce to generate the list of summands (this is a more 'functional' -- as in functional programming -- style):
def f(n):
summands, _ = reduce(lambda (lst, p), i: (lst + [p], p / i),
range(1, n),
([], product(range(1, n+1))))
return sum(summands)
This style is very concise in functional programming languages such as Haskell; Haskell has a function call scanl which simplifies generating the summands so that the definition is just:
f n = sum $ scanl (/) (product [1..n]) [1..(n-2)]
Something like this?
function fac(int n, int s)
{
if (n >= s)
return n * fac(n - 1, s);
return 1;
}
int sum = 0;
int s = 4;
n = 5;
while(s > 0)
{
sum += fac(n, s);
s--;
}
print sum; //320
Loop-free version:
int fac(int n, int s)
{
if (n >= s)
return n * fac(n - 1, s);
return 1;
}
int compute(int n, int s, int sum = 0)
{
if(s > 0)
return compute(n, s - 1, sum + fac(n, s));
return sum;
}
print compute(5, 4); //320
Ok ther is not mutch to write. I would suggest 2 methodes if you want to solve this recursiv. (Becaus of the recrusiv faculty the complexity is a mess and runtime will increase drasticaly with big numbers!)
int func(int n){
return func(n, 2);
}
int func(int n, int i){
if (i < n){
return n*(fac(n-1,n-i)+func(n, i + 1));
}else return 0;
}
int fac(int i,int a){
if(i>a){
return i*fac(i-1, a);
}else return 1;
}

Recursive call for x power y power z

Recently i attended an interview where i was asked to write a recursive java code for (x^y)^z.
function power(x,y){
if(y==0){
return 1;
}else{
x*=power(x,y-1);
}
}
I could manage doing it for x^y but was not getting a solution for including the z also in the recursive call.
On asking for a hint, they told me instead of having 2 parameters in call u can have a array with 2 values. But even then i dint get the solution. can u suggest a solution both ways.
This is the solution I would use in python, but you could easily have done it in javascipt or any other language too:
def power(x, y):
if y == 0:
return 1
if y == 1:
return x
return x * power(x, y - 1)
def power2(x, y, z):
return power(power(x, y), z)
You can then use power2 to return your result. In another language you could probably overload the same function but I do not think this is possible in Python for this scenario.
For your javascript code, all you really needed to add to your solution was a second function along the lines of:
function power2(x,y,z)
{
return power(power(x, y), z);
}
As you can see, the solution itself is also recursive despite defining a new function (or overloading your previous one).
Michael's solution in Java Language
public void testPower()
{
int val = power(2, 3, 2);
System.out.println(val);
}
private int power(int x, int y, int z)
{
return power(power(x, y), z);
}
private int power(int x, int y)
{
if (y == 0)
{
return 1;
}
if (y == 1)
{
return x;
}
return x * power(x, y - 1);
}
output is 64

Tail v. Head Recursion

I was wondering if you would identify this as a head or tail recursive function:
int exponentiation(int x, int y){
if(!y) { return 1; }
return y > 1 ? x * exponentiation(x, y-1) : x;
}
This is not a tail recursion: returning the result of exponentiation is not the last action taken by the function; the multiplication by x is.
However, the function is easy to convert to a tail-recursive implementation by adding an extra parameter, exp:
int exponentiation_tail(int x, int y, int exp = 1){
if(y <= 0) { return exp; }
return exponentiation_tail(x, y-1, exp*x);
}

Optimization of Fibonacci sequence generating algorithm

As we all know, the simplest algorithm to generate Fibonacci sequence is as follows:
if(n<=0) return 0;
else if(n==1) return 1;
f(n) = f(n-1) + f(n-2);
But this algorithm has some repetitive calculation. For example, if you calculate f(5), it will calculate f(4) and f(3). When you calculate f(4), it will again calculate both f(3) and f(2). Could someone give me a more time-efficient recursive algorithm?
I have read about some of the methods for calculating Fibonacci with efficient time complexity following are some of them -
Method 1 - Dynamic Programming
Now here the substructure is commonly known hence I'll straightly Jump to the solution -
static int fib(int n)
{
int f[] = new int[n+2]; // 1 extra to handle case, n = 0
int i;
f[0] = 0;
f[1] = 1;
for (i = 2; i <= n; i++)
{
f[i] = f[i-1] + f[i-2];
}
return f[n];
}
A space-optimized version of above can be done as follows -
static int fib(int n)
{
int a = 0, b = 1, c;
if (n == 0)
return a;
for (int i = 2; i <= n; i++)
{
c = a + b;
a = b;
b = c;
}
return b;
}
Method 2- ( Using power of the matrix {{1,1},{1,0}} )
This an O(n) which relies on the fact that if we n times multiply the matrix M = {{1,1},{1,0}} to itself (in other words calculate power(M, n )), then we get the (n+1)th Fibonacci number as the element at row and column (0, 0) in the resultant matrix. This solution would have O(n) time.
The matrix representation gives the following closed expression for the Fibonacci numbers:
fibonaccimatrix
static int fib(int n)
{
int F[][] = new int[][]{{1,1},{1,0}};
if (n == 0)
return 0;
power(F, n-1);
return F[0][0];
}
/*multiplies 2 matrices F and M of size 2*2, and
puts the multiplication result back to F[][] */
static void multiply(int F[][], int M[][])
{
int x = F[0][0]*M[0][0] + F[0][1]*M[1][0];
int y = F[0][0]*M[0][1] + F[0][1]*M[1][1];
int z = F[1][0]*M[0][0] + F[1][1]*M[1][0];
int w = F[1][0]*M[0][1] + F[1][1]*M[1][1];
F[0][0] = x;
F[0][1] = y;
F[1][0] = z;
F[1][1] = w;
}
/*function that calculates F[][] raise to the power n and puts the
result in F[][]*/
static void power(int F[][], int n)
{
int i;
int M[][] = new int[][]{{1,1},{1,0}};
// n - 1 times multiply the matrix to {{1,0},{0,1}}
for (i = 2; i <= n; i++)
multiply(F, M);
}
This can be optimized to work in O(Logn) time complexity. We can do recursive multiplication to get power(M, n) in the previous method.
static int fib(int n)
{
int F[][] = new int[][]{{1,1},{1,0}};
if (n == 0)
return 0;
power(F, n-1);
return F[0][0];
}
static void multiply(int F[][], int M[][])
{
int x = F[0][0]*M[0][0] + F[0][1]*M[1][0];
int y = F[0][0]*M[0][1] + F[0][1]*M[1][1];
int z = F[1][0]*M[0][0] + F[1][1]*M[1][0];
int w = F[1][0]*M[0][1] + F[1][1]*M[1][1];
F[0][0] = x;
F[0][1] = y;
F[1][0] = z;
F[1][1] = w;
}
static void power(int F[][], int n)
{
if( n == 0 || n == 1)
return;
int M[][] = new int[][]{{1,1},{1,0}};
power(F, n/2);
multiply(F, F);
if (n%2 != 0)
multiply(F, M);
}
Method 3 (O(log n) Time)
Below is one more interesting recurrence formula that can be used to find nth Fibonacci Number in O(log n) time.
If n is even then k = n/2:
F(n) = [2*F(k-1) + F(k)]*F(k)
If n is odd then k = (n + 1)/2
F(n) = F(k)*F(k) + F(k-1)*F(k-1)
How does this formula work?
The formula can be derived from the above matrix equation.
fibonaccimatrix
Taking determinant on both sides, we get
(-1)n = Fn+1Fn-1 – Fn2
Moreover, since AnAm = An+m for any square matrix A, the following identities can be derived (they are obtained from two different coefficients of the matrix product)
FmFn + Fm-1Fn-1 = Fm+n-1
By putting n = n+1,
FmFn+1 + Fm-1Fn = Fm+n
Putting m = n
F2n-1 = Fn2 + Fn-12
F2n = (Fn-1 + Fn+1)Fn = (2Fn-1 + Fn)Fn (Source: Wiki)
To get the formula to be proved, we simply need to do the following
If n is even, we can put k = n/2
If n is odd, we can put k = (n+1)/2
public static int fib(int n)
{
if (n == 0)
return 0;
if (n == 1 || n == 2)
return (f[n] = 1);
// If fib(n) is already computed
if (f[n] != 0)
return f[n];
int k = (n & 1) == 1? (n + 1) / 2
: n / 2;
// Applyting above formula [See value
// n&1 is 1 if n is odd, else 0.
f[n] = (n & 1) == 1? (fib(k) * fib(k) +
fib(k - 1) * fib(k - 1))
: (2 * fib(k - 1) + fib(k))
* fib(k);
return f[n];
}
Method 4 - Using a formula
In this method, we directly implement the formula for the nth term in the Fibonacci series. Time O(1) Space O(1)
Fn = {[(√5 + 1)/2] ^ n} / √5
static int fib(int n) {
double phi = (1 + Math.sqrt(5)) / 2;
return (int) Math.round(Math.pow(phi, n)
/ Math.sqrt(5));
}
Reference: http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibFormula.html
Look here for implementation in Erlang which uses formula
. It shows nice linear resulting behavior because in O(M(n) log n) part M(n) is exponential for big numbers. It calculates fib of one million in 2s where result has 208988 digits. The trick is that you can compute exponentiation in O(log n) multiplications using (tail) recursive formula (tail means with O(1) space when used proper compiler or rewrite to cycle):
% compute X^N
power(X, N) when is_integer(N), N >= 0 ->
power(N, X, 1).
power(0, _, Acc) ->
Acc;
power(N, X, Acc) ->
if N rem 2 =:= 1 ->
power(N - 1, X, Acc * X);
true ->
power(N div 2, X * X, Acc)
end.
where X and Acc you substitute with matrices. X will be initiated with and Acc with identity I equals to .
One simple way is to calculate it iteratively instead of recursively. This will calculate F(n) in linear time.
def fib(n):
a,b = 0,1
for i in range(n):
a,b = a+b,a
return a
Hint: One way you achieve faster results is by using Binet's formula:
Here is a way of doing it in Python:
from decimal import *
def fib(n):
return int((Decimal(1.6180339)**Decimal(n)-Decimal(-0.6180339)**Decimal(n))/Decimal(2.236067977))
you can save your results and use them :
public static long[] fibs;
public long fib(int n) {
fibs = new long[n];
return internalFib(n);
}
public long internalFib(int n) {
if (n<=2) return 1;
fibs[n-1] = fibs[n-1]==0 ? internalFib(n-1) : fibs[n-1];
fibs[n-2] = fibs[n-2]==0 ? internalFib(n-2) : fibs[n-2];
return fibs[n-1]+fibs[n-2];
}
F(n) = (φ^n)/√5 and round to nearest integer, where φ is the golden ratio....
φ^n can be calculated in O(lg(n)) time hence F(n) can be calculated in O(lg(n)) time.
// D Programming Language
void vFibonacci ( const ulong X, const ulong Y, const int Limit ) {
// Equivalent : if ( Limit != 10 ). Former ( Limit ^ 0xA ) is More Efficient However.
if ( Limit ^ 0xA ) {
write ( Y, " " ) ;
vFibonacci ( Y, Y + X, Limit + 1 ) ;
} ;
} ;
// Call As
// By Default the Limit is 10 Numbers
vFibonacci ( 0, 1, 0 ) ;
EDIT: I actually think Hynek Vychodil's answer is superior to mine, but I'm leaving this here just in case someone is looking for an alternate method.
I think the other methods are all valid, but not optimal. Using Binet's formula should give you the right answer in principle, but rounding to the closest integer will give some problems for large values of n. The other solutions will unnecessarily recalculate the values upto n every time you call the function, and so the function is not optimized for repeated calling.
In my opinion the best thing to do is to define a global array and then to add new values to the array IF needed. In Python:
import numpy
fibo=numpy.array([1,1])
last_index=fibo.size
def fib(n):
global fibo,last_index
if (n>0):
if(n>last_index):
for i in range(last_index+1,n+1):
fibo=numpy.concatenate((fibo,numpy.array([fibo[i-2]+fibo[i-3]])))
last_index=fibo.size
return fibo[n-1]
else:
print "fib called for index less than 1"
quit()
Naturally, if you need to call fib for n>80 (approximately) then you will need to implement arbitrary precision integers, which is easy to do in python.
This will execute faster, O(n)
def fibo(n):
a, b = 0, 1
for i in range(n):
if i == 0:
print(i)
elif i == 1:
print(i)
else:
temp = a
a = b
b += temp
print(b)
n = int(input())
fibo(n)

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