CSE 143 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Backtracking

• School: UW
• Department: Computer Science and Engineering
• Course: CSE 143
• Professor: Reges Stuart

Document Summary

A programming technique in which you describe actions to be repeated using a method that calls itself. Involves many cooperating entities, each of which solves a little bit of the problem. This case stops the recursion: recursive case: a case within a recursive solution that involve reducing the overall problem oa simple problem of the same kind that can be solved by a recursive call. Calls tack: the internal structure that keeps track of the sequence of methods that have been called. Extra parameters will usually be used when writing recursive methods. A general algorithm for finding solutions to a problem by exploring possible candidate solutions and abandoning once a given candidate is deemed unsuitable. Involves searching all possibilities, so it can be an expensive technique. Most require two methods: a public method is passed the details of the problem to be solved, an extra private method for extra parameters that does the actual backtracking.