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Recursion versus iteration

1 reply on 1 page. Most recent reply: Jan 27, 2003 11:14 PM by Tj

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Rachel Brunner

Posts: 1
Nickname: rachelbrun
Registered: Jan, 2003

Recursion versus iteration

Posted: Jan 16, 2003 3:11 AM

I am developing a web spider, using a tree structure and a hashmap. I am not sure whether to use recursion or iteration. If I use a hashmap and synchronization with recursion,will that cost a lot of time in which case it is better to do iteration?

Thank you

Rachel

Tj

Posts: 7
Nickname: tj
Registered: Jan, 2003

Re: Recursion versus iteration

Posted: Jan 27, 2003 11:14 PM

Java runtimes don't currently optimize recursive structures, I believe. Iteration will pretty much always be a win, if you care for performance and stability (since Java has limits to recursion). But you could prototype using recursion, since it's generally a clearer way of writing things. Then convert to iteration.

I've used recursion when I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be dealing with deep trees. Then all I cared was writing a bug-free, clear version. If profiling later told me there was a problem, then I would have converted to iteration. Fortunately, there was absolutely no problem.

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