CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#recursion
user1137313
user1137313

Reputation: 2410

Recursive method returning undesired value

I have a function that needs to return a value when it's done doing some stuff. I won't bore you with the details. My function calls itself so it's recursive. Now, I want to be able to obtain the resulting value of this function when I call it from elswhere. So this is the code:

public int compute(string[] myarray)
{
    if (hasParantesisBlock)
    {
        // do stuff
        // remove paranthesis block from myarray
        String[] newArray = removeBlockFromArray(myarray);
        // recursive call                   
        compute(newArray);
    }
    else
    {
        // do other stuff obtaining a value
        return value;
    }
    return 0; // if I remove this I get error
}

and I call it like this:

int myval = compute(myStringArray);

I have a string array and I want to remove blocks that are between parentheses from this myStringArray. I do that in my function compute, until there are no more parentheses blocks there. When that happens I want to do a count of the elements of the string array for example (not a good example) and I want to return that value in the main code.

Because of that last "return 0; ", I always receive 0. But if I display the result (value) from inside the recursive method... I get the right value.

And if there are 2 blocks of parentheses in my string array, then I will get 2 returned values of ZERO, if I have 3 blocks, then I will get 3 ZERO results....

I do not want those ZERO results. I only want to return the value obtained when there are no blocks left in the string Array.

So steps are like this:

- does it have a block?
   - yes. remove block and recall with changed array
     - does it have a block?
       - yes. remove block and recall with changed array
          - does it have a block?
          - no. RETURN my value (!!! this is the only return I want to receive)
       - standard return
   - standard return

How can I do that?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 280

Answers (1)

Nathan White
Nathan White

Reputation: 173

As Peter said,

remove the return 0; return the value of compute(newArray) instead.

(can't comment as i don't have enough rep).

public int compute(string[] myarray)
{
    if (hasParantesisBlock)
    {
            // do stuff
            // remove paranthesis block from myarray
            String[] newArray = removeBlockFromArray(myarray);
            // recursive call                   
            return compute(newArray);
    }
    else
    {
          // do other stuff obtaining a value
          return value;
    }
}

without viewing the entire code i can see a few possible gotchas. Such as not using the return value in the method. As in 

return compute(newArray)++;

Upvotes: 2

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