Differences Between Recursion and Iteration in Java

The Recursion and Iteration both repeatedly execute the set of instructions. Recursion is when a function calls itself repeatedly. The iteration is when a loop repeatedly executes until the controlling condition becomes false.

The primary difference between recursion and iteration is that recursion repeats the statement in a function, whereas iteration is applied to the set of instructions that we want to execute repeatedly.

In this article, we will compare recursion and iteration in Java and discuss the difference between them. Before we proceed, it is important to understand these two concepts with an example.

Recursion in Java

Recursion is a programming practice that allows a method to call itself as often as necessary. The method that calls itself is called a recursive method. It should be noted that while working with recursion, we need to provide a base case that helps the recursive method return the result or, terminate the method call.

Example

The following Java program shows the use of recursion in Java. It calculates the factorial of the specified number.

public class RecursionExample {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      RecursionExample re = new RecursionExample();
      int result = re.factorial(4);
      System.out.println("Result:" + result);
   }
   public int factorial(int n) {
      if (n==0) {
         return 1;
      }
      else {
         return n*factorial(n-1);
      }
   }
}

Following is the output of the above Java program:

Result:24

Iteration

The iteration is the process of repeatedly executing a block of code until a specified condition is met. For iteration, use for loop, while loop, and forEach() method.

Example

The following Java program shows the use of iteration:

public class IterationExample {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      for(int i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
         System.out.println(i + " ");
      }
   }
}

Output of the above Java code is given below:

1
2
3
4
5

Recursion VS Iteration in Java

In the table given below, the difference between recursion and iteration is listed: