What is the opposite of recursion?

- One minute read - 207 words

Recursion is a programming technique, or a mathematical technique, or a set logic technique.

    When a {function} (or {procedure})
    calls itself.  Such a function is called "recursive".  If the
    call is via one or more other functions then this group of
    functions are called "mutually recursive".

    If a function will always call itself, however it is called,
    then it will never terminate.  Usually however, it first
    performs some test on its arguments to check for a "base case"
    - a condition under which it can return a value without
    calling itself.

    The {canonical} example of a recursive function is
    {factorial}:

    	factorial 0 = 1
    	factorial n = n * factorial (n-1)

So when a function calls itself it can be said to recursing. When the answer is found it is passed up to the previous instance of itself, that instance of itself passes it back up to itself until it reaches the first invocation of the function.

So the process of looping deeper, as I said above, is called recursing, what is the process of untangling the Gordian recursion knot, of digging back out? A word that seems to suggest itself is discursion as in discursive.

But…that means ranging from this topic and that. That’s not answer.