Recursion and iteration are used when we repeatedly need to execute a set of instructions. In recursion, we use a function within its definition, causing the repetition to occur. In contrast, we use loops in iterative design to execute repetitive tasks. The two approaches have their advantages and disadvantages.

Personally, I prefer recursion. I find recuse code easier to understand. That said, I wasn't always like this. When I was an undergraduate, I had found it difficult to implement even the easiest recursive functions. Ten years later, I prefer recursion over iteration. That said, I do always implement compute-heavy functions using iteration.

Recursion

• Requires less code
• Code turns out to be easy to follow and understand
• Requires a base condition to break the recursion
• Shortcomings in base condition can result in infinite repetition
• Higher time complexity relative to iterative code
• Large overhead w.r.t. iteration when it comes to computing and memory

Iteration

• Requires more code to handle iteration
• Could be implemented bounded (ex: posts.each { |post| ... })
• Iteration can also be unbounded (ex: loop { ... })
• Bonded iterations are less likely to end up in infinite loops unlike unbounded loops
• Unounded loops, like recursion, require an exit condition (or break condition)
• Code is more efficient w.r.t. recursive code

TODO

• Examples
• Benchmark