How exactly does tail recursion work?

Question

I almost understand how tail recursion works and the difference between it and a normal recursion. I only don\'t understand why it doesn\'t

Answer 1

Compiler is enough intelligent to understand tail recursion.In case, while returning back from a recursive call,there is no pending operation and recursive call is the last statement, fall under the category of tail recursion. Compiler basically performs tail recursion optimization, removing stack implementation.Consider below code.

void tail(int i) {
    if(i<=0) return;
    else {
     system.out.print(i+"");
     tail(i-1);
    }
   }

After performing optimization , the above code is converted into below one.

void tail(int i) {
    blockToJump:{
    if(i<=0) return;
    else {
     system.out.print(i+"");
     i=i-1;
     continue blockToJump;  //jump to the bolckToJump
    }
    }
   }

This is how compiler does Tail Recursion Optimization.