Deep recursion

In Scheme, it is not only possible, but commonplace, for a list to be an element of another list. One can have a list within a list within a list within a list, and so on -- there is no fixed upper bound on levels of nesting.

For instance, the list (((a b) c) d (e (f))) -- considered simply as a datum -- has three elements: ((a b) c), d, and (e (f)). The first of these elements is a list that has two elements: (a b) and c. The list (a b) has two elements, a and b. And so on.

If you count the symbols in the list (((a b) c) d (e (f))) using a ``flat'' recursion over the list, you find that only one of the elements of that list is a symbol:

;;; Given:
;;;   LS, a list.

;;; Result:
;;;   COUNT, a nonnegative integer.

;;; Precondition:
;;;   LS is a list.

;;; Postcondition:
;;;   COUNT is the number of top level symbols in LS.

(define count-top-level-symbols
  (lambda (ls)
    (cond ((null? ls) 0)
          ((symbol? (car ls)) (+ 1 (count-top-level-symbols (cdr ls))))
          (else (count-top-level-symbols (cdr ls))))))

> (count-top-level-symbols '(((a b) c) d (e (f))))
1

The recursion does not attempt to unpack the contents of any of the elements of ls as it examines them. Since ((a b) c) is not itself a symbol, it contributes nothing to the total computed by count-top-level-symbols.

Suppose, however, that we want to write a procedure named count-all-symbols that will be able to determine that there are six symbols altogether within the datum (((a b) c) d (e (f))) -- a, b, c, d, e, and f. We'll need a different pattern of recursion for this, one that reflects our interest in the internal structure of list elements. We call this new pattern deep recursion.

In deep recursion, whenever we examine a list element, we first consider the possibility that that element is itself a list. If it is, we write a recursive procedure call, with the first element as its argument, in addition to the usual recursive procedure call, which takes the rest of the list as its argument. Contrast the preceding definition of count-top-level-symbols with the following definition of count-all-symbols:

;;; Given:
;;;   LS, a list.

;;; Result:
;;;   COUNT, a nonnegative integer.

;;; Precondition:
;;;   LS is a list.

;;; Postcondition:
;;;   COUNT is the number of symbols at all levels of LS.

(define count-all-symbols
  (lambda (ls)
    (cond ((null? ls) 0)
          ((list? (car ls))
           (+ (count-all-symbols (car ls)) (count-all-symbols (cdr ls))))
          ((symbol? (car ls)) (+ 1 (count-all-symbols (cdr ls))))
          (else (count-all-symbols (cdr ls))))))

> (count-all-symbols '(((a b) c) d (e (f))))
6

In the definition of count-all-symbols, the second cond-clause, which is new, comes into play when the first element of ls is itself a list. The recursive call (count-all-symbols (car ls)) counts the symbols that occur inside that first element, while (count-all-symbols (cdr ls)) counts the symbols that occur inside all of the remaining elements of ls (at any level). The total number of symbols in ls is found by adding the two counts.

The characteristic signs of deep recursion are (1) the insertion of the new cond-clause to detect the case in which the first element of a list is itself a list, and (2) the dual recursive procedure calls, one to deal with the car and the other with the cdr of the given list.

We refer to the number of nested lists within which a datum is enclosed as its nesting level. The depth of a tree of symbols is the maximum nesting level of any of the symbols that occur in it. Here is a procedure that computes the depth of a tree of symbols:

;;; Given:
;;;   LS, a list.

;;; Result:
;;;   DEPTH, a nonnegative integer.

;;; Precondition:
;;;   LS is a list.

;;; Postcondition:
;;;   Depth is the depth of the list LS      

(define depth
  (lambda (tr)
    (cond ((null? tr) 0)
          ((list? (car tr))
           (max (+ 1 (depth (car tr))) (depth (cdr tr))))
          ((symbol? (car tr)) (max 1 (depth (cdr tr))))
          (else 0))))

This document is available on the World Wide Web as

http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~gum/courses/151/readings/deep-recursion.xhtml

created February 13, 1997
last revised August 12, 2001

John David Stone (stone@cs.grinnell.edu) and Ben Gum (gum@cs.grinnell.edu)