Tail Recursion

28 Feb, 2022
What is tail recursion? A recursive function is tail recursive when a recursive call is the last thing executed by the function. For example the following C++ function print() is tail recursive. 
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// An example of tail recursive functionvoid print(int n){    if (n < 0)  return;    cout << " " << n;     // The last executed statement is recursive call    print(n-1);}
// An example of tail recursive functionstatic void print(int n){    if (n < 0)      return;        System.out.print(" " + n);        // The last executed statement      // is recursive call    print(n - 1);} // This code is contributed by divyeh072019
# An example of tail recursive functiondef prints(n):     if (n < 0):        return    print(str(n), end=' ')     # The last executed statement is recursive call    prints(n-1)         # This code is contributed by Pratham76    # improved by ashish2021
// An example of tail recursive functionstatic void print(int n){    if (n < 0)      return;       Console.Write(" " + n);       // The last executed statement      // is recursive call    print(n - 1);} // This code is contributed by divyeshrabadiya07
<script>// An example of tail recursive functionfunction print(n){    if (n < 0)      return;        document.write(" " + n);        // The last executed statement      // is recursive call    print(n - 1);} // This code is contributed by Rajput-Ji</script>
Why do we care? The tail recursive functions considered better than non tail recursive functions as tail-recursion can be optimized by the compiler. Compilers usually execute recursive procedures by using a stack. This stack consists of all the pertinent information, including the parameter values, for each recursive call. When a procedure is called, its information is pushed onto a stack, and when the function terminates the information is popped out of the stack. Thus for the non-tail-recursive functions, the stack depth (maximum amount of stack space used at any time during compilation) is more. The idea used by compilers to optimize tail-recursive functions is simple, since the recursive call is the last statement, there is nothing left to do in the current function, so saving the current function’s stack frame is of no use (See this for more details).
Can a non-tail recursive function be written as tail-recursive to optimize it? Consider the following function to calculate the factorial of n. It is a non-tail-recursive function. Although it looks like a tail recursive at first look. If we take a closer look, we can see that the value returned by fact(n-1) is used in fact(n), so the call to fact(n-1) is not the last thing done by fact(n) 
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#include<iostream>using namespace std; // A NON-tail-recursive function.  The function is not tail// recursive because the value returned by fact(n-1) is used in// fact(n) and call to fact(n-1) is not the last thing done by fact(n)unsigned int fact(unsigned int n){    if (n == 0) return 1;     return n*fact(n-1);} // Driver program to test above functionint main(){    cout << fact(5);    return 0;}
class GFG {         // A NON-tail-recursive function.    // The function is not tail    // recursive because the value    // returned by fact(n-1) is used    // in fact(n) and call to fact(n-1)    // is not the last thing done by    // fact(n)    static int fact(int n)    {        if (n == 0) return 1;             return n*fact(n-1);    }         // Driver program    public static void main(String[] args)    {        System.out.println(fact(5));    }} // This code is contributed by Smitha.
# A NON-tail-recursive function.# The function is not tail# recursive because the value# returned by fact(n-1) is used# in fact(n) and call to fact(n-1)# is not the last thing done by# fact(n)def fact(n):     if (n == 0):        return 1     return n * fact(n-1) # Driver program to test# above functionprint(fact(5))# This code is contributed by Smitha.
using System; class GFG {         // A NON-tail-recursive function.    // The function is not tail    // recursive because the value    // returned by fact(n-1) is used    // in fact(n) and call to fact(n-1)    // is not the last thing done by    // fact(n)    static int fact(int n)    {        if (n == 0)            return 1;             return n * fact(n-1);    }         // Driver program to test    // above function    public static void Main()    {        Console.Write(fact(5));    }} // This code is contributed by Smitha
<?php// A NON-tail-recursive function.// The function is not tail// recursive because the value// returned by fact(n-1) is used in// fact(n) and call to fact(n-1) is// not the last thing done by fact(n) function fact( $n){    if ($n == 0) return 1;     return $n * fact($n - 1);}     // Driver Code    echo fact(5); // This code is contributed by Ajit?>
<script> // A NON-tail-recursive function.// The function is not tail// recursive because the value// returned by fact(n-1) is used// in fact(n) and call to fact(n-1)// is not the last thing done by// fact(n)function fact(n){    if (n == 0)        return 1;      return n * fact(n - 1);} // Driver codedocument.write(fact(5)); // This code is contributed by divyeshrabadiya07 </script>
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The above function can be written as a tail recursive function. The idea is to use one more argument and accumulate the factorial value in the second argument. When n reaches 0, return the accumulated value.
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#include<iostream>using namespace std; // A tail recursive function to calculate factorialunsigned factTR(unsigned int n, unsigned int a){    if (n == 1)  return a;     return factTR(n-1, n*a);} // A wrapper over factTRunsigned int fact(unsigned int n){   return factTR(n, 1);} // Driver program to test above functionint main(){    cout << fact(5);    return 0;}
// Java Code for Tail Recursion class GFG {         // A tail recursive function    // to calculate factorial    static int factTR(int n, int a)    {        if (n == 0)            return a;             return factTR(n - 1, n * a);    }         // A wrapper over factTR    static int fact(int n)    {        return factTR(n, 1);    }     // Driver code    static public void main (String[] args)    {        System.out.println(fact(5));    }} // This code is contributed by Smitha.
# A tail recursive function# to calculate factorialdef fact(n, a = 1):     if (n == 1):        return a     return fact(n - 1, n * a) # Driver program to test#  above functionprint(fact(5)) # This code is contributed# by Smitha# improved by Ujwal, ashish2021
// C# Code for Tail Recursionusing System; class GFG {         // A tail recursive function    // to calculate factorial    static int factTR(int n, int a)    {        if (n == 0)            return a;             return factTR(n - 1, n * a);    }         // A wrapper over factTR    static int fact(int n)    {        return factTR(n, 1);    }     // Driver code    static public void Main ()    {        Console.WriteLine(fact(5));    }} // This code is contributed by Ajit.
<?php// A tail recursive function// to calculate factorialfunction factTR($n, $a){    if ($n == 0) return $a;     return factTR($n - 1, $n * $a);} // A wrapper over factTRfunction fact($n){    return factTR($n, 1);} // Driver program to test// above functionecho fact(5); // This code is contributed// by Smitha?>
<script> // Javascript Code for Tail Recursion // A tail recursive function// to calculate factorialfunction factTR(n, a){    if (n == 0)        return a;      return factTR(n - 1, n * a);}  // A wrapper over factTRfunction fact(n){    return factTR(n, 1);} // Driver codedocument.write(fact(5)); // This code is contributed by rameshtravel07     </script>
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Next articles on this topic: Tail Call Elimination QuickSort Tail Call Optimization (Reducing worst case space to Log n )References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_call http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TailRecursionPlease write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above 
Smitha Dinesh Semwal
jit_t
ujwalkundur
divyeshrabadiya07
divyesh072019
pratham76
mukesh07
rameshtravel07
KOMAL Y
ashish2021
Rajput-Ji
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