Algorithm for joining e.g. an array of strings

Question

I have wondered for some time, what a nice, clean solution for joining an array of strings might look like. Example: I have [\"Alpha\", \"Beta\", \"Gamma\"] and want to join

Answer 1

The following is no longer language-agnostic (but that doesn't matter for the discussion because the implementation is easily portable to other languages). I tried to implement Luke's (theretically best) solution in an imperative programming language. Take your pick; mine's C#. Not very elegant at all. However, (without any testing whatsoever) I could imagine that its performance is quite decent because the recursion is in fact tail recursive.

My challenge: give a better recursive implementation (in an imperative language). You say what “better” means: less code, faster, I'm open for suggestions.

private static StringBuilder RecJoin(IEnumerator xs, string sep, StringBuilder result) {
    result.Append(xs.Current);
    if (xs.MoveNext()) {
        result.Append(sep);
        return RecJoin(xs, sep, result);
    } else
        return result;
}

public static string Join(this IEnumerable xs, string separator) {
    var i = xs.GetEnumerator();
    if (!i.MoveNext())
        return string.Empty;
    else
        return RecJoin(i, separator, new StringBuilder()).ToString();
}