Tail Recursion (original) (raw)
Last Updated : 20 Jan, 2026
**Tail recursion is defined as a recursive function in which the recursive call is the last statement that is executed by the function. So basically nothing is left to execute after the recursion call.
C++ `
// An example of tail recursive function
static void print(int n) { if (n < 0) return; cout << " " << n;
// The last executed statement is recursive call
print(n - 1);}
C
// An example of tail recursive function
void print(int n) { if (n < 0) return; printf("%d ", n);
// The last executed statement is recursive call
print(n - 1);}
Java
// An example of tail recursive function
static void print(int n) { if (n < 0) return;
System.out.print(" " + n);
// The last executed statement
// is recursive call
print(n - 1);}
Python
An example of tail recursive function
def prints(n):
if (n < 0):
return
print(str(n), end=' ')
# The last executed statement is recursive call
prints(n-1)C#
// An example of tail recursive function
static void print(int n) { if (n < 0) return;
Console.Write(" " + n);
// The last executed statement
// is recursive call
print(n - 1);}
JavaScript
function prints(n) { if (n < 0) { return; } console.log(n);
// The last executed statement
// is recursive call
prints(n - 1);}
`
Need for Tail Recursion:
- Tail-recursive functions are better than non-tail-recursive ones because they can be optimized by the compiler.
- The idea used by compilers to optimize tail-recursive functions is simple, since the recursive call is the last statement, there is nothing left to do in the current function, so saving the current function's stack frame can be avoided by simply sending the control back to the beginning of the function either using a loop or goto statement.(See this for more details)
Can a non-tail-recursive function be written as tail-recursive to optimize it?
Consider the following function to calculate the factorial of n.
It is a non-tail-recursive function. Although it looks like a tail recursive at first look. If we take a closer look, we can see that the value returned by fact(n-1) is used in **fact(n). So the call to **fact(n-1) is not the last thing done by **fact(n).
C++ `
#include using namespace std;
// Non-tail-recursive factorial function unsigned int fact(unsigned int n) { if (n <= 0) return 1;
// Recursive call is not the last operation
return n * fact(n - 1);}
int main() { // Testing the factorial function cout << fact(5); return 0; }
C
#include <stdio.h>
// Non-tail-recursive factorial function unsigned int fact(unsigned int n) { if (n <= 0) return 1;
// Recursive call is not the last operation
return n * fact(n - 1);}
int main() { // Testing the factorial function printf("%u", fact(5));
return 0;}
Java
class GFG {
// A NON-tail-recursive function.
// The function is not tail
// recursive because the value
// returned by fact(n-1) is used
// in fact(n) and call to fact(n-1)
// is not the last thing done by
// fact(n)
static int fact(int n)
{
if (n == 0)
return 1;
return n * fact(n - 1);
}
// Driver program
public static void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println(fact(5));
}}
// This code is contributed by Smitha.
Python
A NON-tail-recursive function.
The function is not tail
recursive because the value
returned by fact(n-1) is used
in fact(n) and call to fact(n-1)
is not the last thing done by
fact(n)
def fact(n): if (n == 0): return 1 return n * fact(n-1)
Driver program to test
above function
if name == 'main': print(fact(5))
C#
using System;
class GFG {
// A NON-tail-recursive function.
// The function is not tail
// recursive because the value
// returned by fact(n-1) is used
// in fact(n) and call to fact(n-1)
// is not the last thing done by
// fact(n)
static int fact(int n)
{
if (n == 0)
return 1;
return n * fact(n - 1);
}
// Driver program to test
// above function
public static void Main() { Console.Write(fact(5)); }}
// This code is contributed by Smitha
JavaScript
// A NON-tail-recursive function // The function is not tail // recursive because the value // returned by fact(n-1) is used // in fact(n) and call to fact(n-1) // is not the last thing done by // fact(n)
function fact(n) { if (n === 0) { return 1; } return n * fact(n - 1); }
// Driver program to test // above function console.log(fact(5));
PHP
`
The above function can be written as a tail-recursive function. The idea is to use one more argument and accumulate the factorial value in the second argument. When n reaches 0, return the accumulated value.
C++ `
#include using namespace std;
// A tail recursive function to calculate factorial unsigned factTR(unsigned int n, unsigned int a) { if (n <= 1) return a;
return factTR(n - 1, n * a);}
// A wrapper over factTR unsigned int fact(unsigned int n) { return factTR(n, 1); }
// Driver program to test above function int main() { cout << fact(5); return 0; }
C
#include <stdio.h>
// A tail recursive function to calculate factorial unsigned int factTR(unsigned int n, unsigned int a) { if (n <= 1) return a;
return factTR(n - 1, n * a);}
// A wrapper over factTR unsigned int fact(unsigned int n) { return factTR(n, 1); }
int main() { printf("%u", fact(5)); return 0; }
Java
// Java Code for Tail Recursion
class GFG {
// A tail recursive function
// to calculate factorial
static int factTR(int n, int a)
{
if (n <= 0)
return a;
return factTR(n - 1, n * a);
}
// A wrapper over factTR
static int fact(int n) { return factTR(n, 1); }
// Driver code
static public void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println(fact(5));
}}
// This code is contributed by Smitha.
Python
A tail recursive function
to calculate factorial
def fact(n, a=1):
if (n <= 1):
return a
return fact(n - 1, n * a)Driver program to test
above function
print(fact(5))
This code is contributed
by Smitha
improved by Ujwal, ashish2021
C#
// C# Code for Tail Recursion
using System;
class GFG {
// A tail recursive function
// to calculate factorial
static int factTR(int n, int a)
{
if (n <= 0)
return a;
return factTR(n - 1, n * a);
}
// A wrapper over factTR
static int fact(int n) { return factTR(n, 1); }
// Driver code
static public void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine(fact(5));
}}
// This code is contributed by Ajit.
JavaScript
PHP
`
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