What is the concept of recursion in PHP and how can it be effectively used?

Recursion in PHP is a concept where a function calls itself within its own definition. This technique is commonly used to solve problems that can be broken down into smaller, similar sub-problems. To effectively use recursion in PHP, it is important to ensure that the base case is defined to prevent infinite loops. Example PHP code snippet demonstrating recursion: 

function factorial($n) {
    if ($n <= 1) {
        return 1;
    } else {
        return $n * factorial($n - 1);
    }
}

// Calculate the factorial of 5
echo factorial(5); // Output: 120

Keywords

Recursion PHP function call stack base case

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