How to memoize recursive functions?

Question

Consider a recursive function, say the Euclid algorithm defined by:

let rec gcd a b =
  let (q, r) = (a / b, a mod b) in
  if r = 0 then b else gcd b r
         


        

Answer 1

# let memoize f =
    let table = Hashtbl.Poly.create () in
    (fun x ->
      match Hashtbl.find table x with
      | Some y -> y
      | None ->
        let y = f x in
        Hashtbl.add_exn table ~key:x ~data:y;
        y
    );;
val memoize : ('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b = 


# let memo_rec f_norec x =
    let fref = ref (fun _ -> assert false) in
    let f = memoize (fun x -> f_norec !fref x) in
    fref := f;
    f x
  ;;
val memo_rec : (('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b = 

You should read the section here: https://realworldocaml.org/v1/en/html/imperative-programming-1.html#memoization-and-dynamic-programming in the book Real World OCaml.

It will help you truly understand how memo is working.