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Factorial Function Confusing. [message #677690] Mon, 07 October 2019 06:12 Go to next message
mamalik
Messages: 268
Registered: November 2008
Location: Pakistan
Senior Member

Dear All,

I saw following code on internet while reading about recursive function. I copied following code and test on my environment. Please see below code.

CREATE OR REPLACE function factorial (
      n positive
    ) return positive
    is
   begin   
      if n = 1 then
        return n;
      else           
     return N * factorial(n-1);
     end if;
end;
/
Then i run following statement and got correct result.
Select Factorial(4) from dual;

Confusion is that in function it is written that "If n = 1 then return n". But when i will call function to calculate factorial of 4, then 4 value is passed and it will be decreased by 1 until its value is 1, when n will be 1 then value will be returned after calculating desired value.

So i think in each case result should be 1, so how is it returning correct value.

Please clear.

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,
Asif.
Re: Factorial Function Confusing. [message #677692 is a reply to message #677690] Mon, 07 October 2019 07:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Amine
Messages: 371
Registered: March 2010
Senior Member

this is the purpose of recursive functions.

Make beautiful code, readable, scalable and maintainable.

you have to run the code step by step, to see that in fact, the function returns the factorial of n.

for n=4, it returns 4*fact(3).
then fact(3) returns 3*fact(2)
then fact(2) returns 2*fact(1)
then as fact(1) = 1 then the stop condition is satisfied, and the resistivity is ended.

then when you come back, you'll have 4*3*2*1=24.
Re: Factorial Function Confusing. [message #677693 is a reply to message #677690] Mon, 07 October 2019 09:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Michel Cadot
Messages: 68624
Registered: March 2007
Location: Nanterre, France, http://...
Senior Member
Account Moderator

In execution graph this is:
factorial(4)
  |
  +-> 4 * factorial(3)
            |
            +-> 3 * factorial(2)
                      |
                      +-> 2 * factorial(1)
                                |
                                +-> 1
then pop the returned results from the last to the first one applying the operation:
 ((((1) * 2) * 3) * 4)
Re: Factorial Function Confusing. [message #677694 is a reply to message #677690] Mon, 07 October 2019 11:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Solomon Yakobson
Messages: 3269
Registered: January 2010
Location: Connecticut, USA
Senior Member
In addition, function can be optimized a bit to reduce recursion level:

CREATE OR REPLACE function factorial (
      n positive
    ) return positive
    is
   begin
      if n <= 2 then
        return n;
      else
     return N * factorial(n-1);
     end if;
end;
/

SY.
Re: Factorial Function Confusing. [message #677697 is a reply to message #677690] Mon, 07 October 2019 23:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
mamalik
Messages: 268
Registered: November 2008
Location: Pakistan
Senior Member

Thanks to all for replying.

Please clear following statement.
if n = 1 then  
  return n;

If about statement if N=1 then value of N will be returned. If N=1 then how n is return 24.

Regards,
Asif.
Re: Factorial Function Confusing. [message #677698 is a reply to message #677697] Tue, 08 October 2019 00:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Michel Cadot
Messages: 68624
Registered: March 2007
Location: Nanterre, France, http://...
Senior Member
Account Moderator

You missed this one:
return N * factorial(n-1);
If N=1 then it returns 1 but if n <> 1 then it returns N multiplies by factorial(n-1).

If you put the computation of your factorial(4) call you get:
4 * factorial(3) * factorial(2) * factorial(1) (and this later is 1)

[Updated on: Tue, 08 October 2019 00:41]

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Re: Factorial Function Confusing. [message #677699 is a reply to message #677697] Tue, 08 October 2019 00:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
_jum
Messages: 577
Registered: February 2008
Senior Member
Quote:
In addition, function can be optimized a bit to reduce recursion level:
Btw. would add the DETERMINISTIC clause for same reason, if one uses the function more than once.

[Updated on: Tue, 08 October 2019 00:42]

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Re: Factorial Function Confusing. [message #677710 is a reply to message #677699] Tue, 08 October 2019 09:04 Go to previous message
JPBoileau
Messages: 88
Registered: September 2017
Member
Not to mention that this function will only work for values up to 12 as it is written.

JP
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