Difference between Left Factoring and Left Recursion

Question

What is the difference between Left Factoring and Left Recursion ? I understand that Left factoring is a predictive top down parsing t

Answer 1

This is the way I've seen the two terms used:

1. Left recursion: when one or more productions can be reached from themselves with no tokens consumed in-between.
2. Left factoring: a process of transformation, turning the grammar from a left-recursive form to an equivalent non-left-recursive form.