Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error)

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From	Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com>
Date	Mon, 2 May 2011 23:46:58 -0600
Subject	Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error)
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On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 11:27 PM, Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com> wrote:
> But the recursive solution has time complexity of O(logn).  The iterative
> solution has time complexity of O(n).  That's a significant difference for
> large n - a significant benefit of the recursive version.

It's linear as written.  I think you're talking about an
implementation like this one:

def powR(x,n):
  if n < 0:
    return 1.0 / powR(x, -n)
  elif n == 0:
    return 1
  else:
    half_n = n // 2
    root = powR(x, half_n)
    result = root * root
    if half_n + half_n == n - 1:
      result = result * x
    return result

That's O(log n), but it was harder to write, and it could just as
easily be iterative.  In fact it might actually have been a bit
simpler to write it iteratively.

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Fibonacci series recursion error lalit <opposite800@gmail.com> - 2011-04-29 20:22 -0700
  Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Gary Herron <gherron@islandtraining.com> - 2011-04-29 20:41 -0700
  Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Jason Friedman <jason@powerpull.net> - 2011-04-30 03:57 +0000
  Re: Fibonacci series recursion error harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-04-29 23:45 -0500
    Re: Fibonacci series recursion error harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-04-29 23:51 -0500
      Re: Fibonacci series recursion error harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-04-30 00:31 -0500
        Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2011-04-30 08:14 +0200
          Re: Fibonacci series recursion error rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-05-02 00:08 -0700
    Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Hans Georg Schaathun <hg@schaathun.net> - 2011-04-30 06:50 +0100
    Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Paul Rudin <paul.nospam@rudin.co.uk> - 2011-04-30 06:43 +0100
  Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-04-29 23:27 -0600
    Re: Fibonacci series recursion error harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-04-30 00:35 -0500
      Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2011-04-30 08:32 +0200
        Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-04-30 16:37 +1000
      Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Thomas Rachel <nutznetz-0c1b6768-bfa9-48d5-a470-7603bd3aa915@spamschutz.glglgl.de> - 2011-04-30 11:37 +0200
        Re: Fibonacci series recursion error harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-02 16:50 -0500
          Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 08:17 +1000
            Re: Fibonacci series recursion error harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-03 12:10 -0500
              Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-04 07:41 +1000
              Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 16:31 -0600
              Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-04 09:09 +1000
          Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-05-02 16:22 -0600
          Re: Fibonacci series recursion error Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 08:42 +1000
          Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-05-02 18:48 -0700
            Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 12:13 +1000
            Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 15:29 +1000
              Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 00:52 -0700
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Dave Angel <davea@ieee.org> - 2011-05-03 06:32 -0400
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 03:51 -0700
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 21:04 +1000
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-03 12:49 +0000
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-03 23:02 +1000
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Hans Mulder <hansmu@xs4all.nl> - 2011-05-12 00:06 +0200
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-05-13 04:11 -0700
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-05-13 07:55 -0600
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Hans Mulder <hansmu@xs4all.nl> - 2011-05-13 21:46 +0200
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Mark Dickinson <dickinsm@gmail.com> - 2011-05-13 14:48 -0700
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-05-14 10:24 -0700
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-05-14 15:19 -0600
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2011-05-14 20:32 -0700
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Mark Dickinson <dickinsm@gmail.com> - 2011-05-15 12:20 -0700
                Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Mark Dickinson <dickinsm@gmail.com> - 2011-05-15 12:29 -0700
            Re: Recursion or iteration (was Fibonacci series recursion error) Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-05-02 23:46 -0600

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