C# 0 The Complete Reference

Recursion

In C#, a method can call itself. This process is called 

recursion,

 and a method that calls itself 

is said to be 

recursive.

 In general, recursion is the process of defining something in terms of 

itself and is somewhat similar to a circular definition. The key component of a recursive 

method is that it contains a statement that executes a call to itself. Recursion is a powerful 

control mechanism.

The classic example of recursion is the computation of the factorial of a number. The 

factorial of a number 

N

 is the product of all the whole numbers between 1 and 

N.

 For 

example, 3 factorial is 1×2×3, or 6. The following program shows a recursive way to 

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