What in layman's terms is a Recursive Function using PHP

Question

Can anyone please explain a recursive function to me in PHP (without using Fibonacci) in layman language and using examples? i was looking at an example but the Fibonacci to

Answer 1

Simply put: a recursive function is a function that calls itself.

Answer 2

Basically this. It keeps calling itself until its done

void print_folder(string root)
{
    Console.WriteLine(root);
    foreach(var folder in Directory.GetDirectories(root))
    {
        print_folder(folder);
    }
}

Also works with loops!

void pretend_loop(int c)
{
    if(c==0) return;
    print "hi";
    pretend_loop(c-);
}

You can also trying googling it. Note the "Did you mean" (click on it...). http://www.google.com/search?q=recursion&spell=1

Answer 3

Here is a practical example (there are several good ones already). I just wanted to add one that is useful to almost any developer.

At some point, developers will need to parse an object as with a response from an API or some type of object or array.

This function is initially called to parse an object which may just contain parameters, but what if the object also contains other objects or arrays? This will need to be addressed, and for the most part the basic function already does this, so the function just calls itself again (after confirming that the key or value is either an object or an array) and parses this new object or array. Ultimately what is returned is a string that creates each parameter on a line by itself for readability, but you could just as easily log the values to a log file or insert into a DB or whatever.

I added the $prefix parameter to use the parent element to help describe the end variable so that we can see what the value pertains to. It doesn't include things like null values, but this can be amended from this example.

If you have the object:

$apiReturn = new stdClass();
$apiReturn->shippingInfo = new stdClass();
$apiReturn->shippingInfo->fName = "Bill";
$apiReturn->shippingInfo->lName = "Test";
$apiReturn->shippingInfo->address1 = "22 S. Deleware St.";
$apiReturn->shippingInfo->city = "Chandler";
$apiReturn->shippingInfo->state = "AZ";
$apiReturn->shippingInfo->zip = 85225;
$apiReturn->phone = "602-312-4455";
$apiReturn->transactionDetails = array(
    "totalAmt" => "100.00",
     "currency" => "USD",
     "tax" => "5.00",
     "shipping" => "5.00"
);
$apiReturn->item = new stdClass();
$apiReturn->item->name = "T-shirt";
$apiReturn->item->color = "blue";
$apiReturn->item->itemQty = 1;

and use:

var_dump($apiReturn);

it will return:

object(stdClass)#1 (4) { ["shippingInfo"]=> object(stdClass)#2 (6) { ["fName"]=> string(4) "Bill" ["lName"]=> string(4) "Test" ["address1"]=> string(18) "22 S. Deleware St." ["city"]=> string(8) "Chandler" ["state"]=> string(2) "AZ" ["zip"]=> int(85225) } ["phone"]=> string(12) "602-312-4455" ["transactionDetails"]=> array(4) { ["totalAmt"]=> string(6) "100.00" ["currency"]=> string(3) "USD" ["tax"]=> string(4) "5.00" ["shipping"]=> string(4) "5.00" } ["item"]=> object(stdClass)#3 (3) { ["name"]=> string(7) "T-shirt" ["color"]=> string(4) "blue" ["itemQty"]=> int(1) } }

and here is the code to parse it into a string with a line break for each parameter:

function parseObj($obj, $prefix = ''){
    $stringRtrn = '';
    foreach($obj as $key=>$value){
        if($prefix){
            switch ($key) {
                case is_array($key):
                    foreach($key as $k=>$v){
                        $stringRtrn .= parseObj($key, $obj);
                    }
                    break;
                case is_object($key):
                    $stringRtrn .= parseObj($key, $obj);
                    break;
                default:
                    switch ($value) {
                        case is_array($value):
                            $stringRtrn .= parseObj($value, $key);
                            break;
                        case is_object($value):
                            $stringRtrn .= parseObj($value, $key);
                            break;
                        default:
                            $stringRtrn .= $prefix ."_". $key ." = ". $value ."<br>";
                            break;
                    }
                    break;
            }
        } else { // end if($prefix)
            switch($key){
                case is_array($key):
                    $stringRtrn .= parseObj($key, $obj);
                    break;
                case is_object($key):

                    $stringRtrn .= parseObj($key, $obj);
                    break;
                default:
                    switch ($value) {
                        case is_array($value):
                            $stringRtrn .= parseObj($value, $key);
                            break;
                        case is_object($value):
                            $stringRtrn .= parseObj($value, $key);
                            break;                      
                        default:
                            $stringRtrn .= $key ." = ". $value ."<br>";
                            break;
                    } // end inner switch 
            } // end outer switch
        } // end else
    } // end foreach($obj as $key=>$value)
    return $stringRtrn;
} // END parseObj()

This will return the object as follows:

shippingInfo_fName = Bill
shippingInfo_lName = Test
shippingInfo_address1 = 22 S. Deleware St.
shippingInfo_city = Chandler
shippingInfo_state = AZ
shippingInfo_zip = 85225
phone = 602-312-4455
transactionDetails_totalAmt = 100.00
transactionDetails_currency = USD
transactionDetails_tax = 5.00
transactionDetails_shipping = 5.00
item_name = T-shirt
item_color = blue
item_itemQty = 1

I did the nested switch statements to avoid confusion with if . . . ifelse . . . else, but it was almost as long. If it helps, just ask for the if conditionals and I can paste them for those who need it.

Answer 4

Recursion used for Kaprekar's constant

function KaprekarsConstant($num, $count = 1) {
    $input = str_split($num);
    sort($input);

    $ascendingInput  = implode($input);
    $descendingInput = implode(array_reverse($input));

    $result = $ascendingInput > $descendingInput 
        ? $ascendingInput - $descendingInput 
        : $descendingInput - $ascendingInput;

    if ($result != 6174) {
        return KaprekarsConstant(sprintf('%04d', $result), $count + 1);
    }

    return $count;

}

The function keeps calling itself with the result of the calculation until it reaches Kaprekars constant, at which it will return the amount of times the calculations was made.

/edit For anyone that doesn't know Kaprekars Constant, it needs an input of 4 digits with at least two distinct digits.