15-212: Principles of Programming

Lecture 5: Structural Induction and Tail Recursion

We discuss the method of structural induction on recursively defined types. This technique parallels standard induction on predicates, but has a unique character of its own, and arises often in programming.

We also discuss tail recursion, a form of recursion that is somewhat like the use of loops in imperative programming. This form of recursion is often especially efficient and easy to analyze. Accumulator arguments play an important role in tail recursion.

As examples we consider recursively defined lists and trees.

Key Concepts

Sample Code

Sample Evaluations

Handouts

On-line Notes by Robert Harper


Suggested Reading in Programming in Standard ML:


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Michael Erdmann