Sudoku

[Eric Parry]

On Friday, March 29, 2013 9:15:36 AM UTC+10:30, Chris Angelico wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 9:11 AM, Eric Parry <joan4eric at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Thank you for that explanation.
> 
> > No, I do not understand recursion. It is missing from my Python manual. I would be pleased to receive further explanation from anyone.
> 
> 
> 
> If you already know what recursion is, just remember the answer.
> 
> Otherwise, find someone who is standing closer to Douglas Hofstadter
> 
> than you are; then ask him or her what recursion is.
> 
> 
> 
> :)
> 
> 
> 
> Recursion is a form of self-referential code. Take this simple, and
> 
> rather silly, means of calculating the sum of numbers in a list (like
> 
> the sum() function):
> 
> 
> 
> # The sum of numbers in an empty list is 0.
> 
> # Otherwise it is the first number plus the sum of the rest of the list.
> 
> def list_sum(lst):
> 
>     if not lst: return 0
> 
>     return lst[0] + list_sum(lst[1:])
> 
> 
> 
> >>> list_sum([1,2,3,4,5,6])
> 
> 21
> 
> 
> 
> Note how the function calls itself - but not always. That's critical
> 
> to recursion - a termination condition. In this case, it's quite
> 
> obvious that the list will eventually have nothing left in it, so the
> 
> function will terminate. Sometimes it's less obvious. Sometimes a bug
> 
> results in infinite recursion... and:
> 
> 
> 
> RuntimeError: maximum recursion depth exceeded in comparison
> 
> 
> 
> Hope that helps!
> 
> 
> 
> ChrisA

Thank you for that example Chris.
That explains why the program keeps running after a solution is found.
Eric