C programming recursion segmentation fault

Question

I am trying to using with recursion function. But I got failed which is segmentation fault.

#include <stdio.h>


int factorial( int x );
int main(){

    factorial(4);
    return 0;


}

int factorial( int x ){
       
     return x* factorial(x-1);
}

I have seen the same code in Python and C programming does not give the same success. I’m wondering why and how can I get around this problem

Asked By: Paroz

||

Source

Answer 1

The problem is that you didn´t tell the factorial function when should it end.
Try instead

long factorial(int x) {  
     if (n == 0)  
        return 1;  
     else  
        return(x * factorial(x-1));  
}

Like this when it reaches the number 0 is gonna Stop and return the factorial from x.
This works because the factorial of a number n is given by:
n * n-1 * n-2 * … * 1. But you are traying to calculate it like n * n-1 * … * -inf

Answered By: StarLight

Answer 2

This is because there is no base condition defined in the factorial function to handle the value zero.

int factorial( int x ){

    if (x == 0)  
        return 1;  
    else  
        return x* factorial(x-1);
       
}

Answered By: Maheshwaran Dhandapani

C programming recursion segmentation fault

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