Recursive vs. Iterative algorithms

Posted by teehoo on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by teehoo
Published on 2010-04-14T22:10:17Z Indexed on 2010/04/14 22:13 UTC
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recursion

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iteration

I'm implementing the Euclidian algorithm for finding the GCD (Greatest Common Divisor) of two integers.

Two sample implementations are given: Recursive and Iterative. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_algorithm#Implementations

My Question:

In school I remember my professors talking about recursive functions like they were all the rage, but I have one doubt. Compared to an iterative version don't recursive algorithms take up more stack space and therefore much more memory? Also, because calling a function requires uses some overhead for initialization, aren't recursive algorithms more slower than their iterative counterpart?

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