Method Overloading and Recursion

Overloading lets several methods share a name when their parameters differ. Recursion is a method that calls itself.

ExampleJava

public class Main {
  static int plus(int a, int b) { return a + b; }
  static double plus(double a, double b) { return a + b; }

  static int factorial(int n) {
    if (n <= 1) return 1;       // stop condition
    return n * factorial(n - 1);
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println(plus(2, 3));
    System.out.println(plus(2.5, 3.5));
    System.out.println(factorial(5)); // 120
  }
}

Output

5
6.0
120

Every recursive method needs a stop condition (the if (n <= 1) above), otherwise it calls itself until the program crashes.

Quick check

What does every recursive method need?

A loopA stop conditionTwo parameters

Finish the quick check (and any code exercise) to complete this lesson, or mark it done yourself.

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