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Recursion vs Regression - What's the difference?

recursion | regression |

As nouns the difference between recursion and regression

is that recursion is recursion while regression is regression.

recursion

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of recurring.
  • (mathematics) The act of defining an object (usually a function) in terms of that object itself.
  • *
  • However, we have still not achieved our goal of devising a finite'' set of rules
    which will generate an ''infinite'' set of sentence structures. In order to achieve
    this goal, we need to allow for the fact that natural languages typically have
    the property that they allow potentially infinite ''recursion'' of particular struc-
    tures. For example, one Clause can be ''embedded
    inside another indefinitely
    many times, [...]
    n! = n × (n − 1)! (for n > 0) or 1 (for n = 0) defines the factorial function using recursion.
  • (computing) The calling of a function from within that same function.
  • This function uses recursion to compute factorials.

    Derived terms

    * tail recursion * infinite recursion

    regression

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An action of regressing, a return to a previous state.
  • * 1899: Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class
  • Few of these groups or communities that are classed as "savage" show no traces of regression from a more advanced cultural stage.
  • (psychotherapy) A psychotherapeutic method whereby healing is facilitated by inducing the patient to act out behaviour typical of an earlier developmental stage.
  • (statistics) An analytic method to measure the association of one or more independent variables with a dependent variable.
  • (statistics) An equation using specified and associated data for two or more variables such that one variable can be estimated from the remaining variable(s).
  • (programming) The reappearance of a bug in a piece of software that had previously been fixed.
  • Antonyms

    * progression

    Derived terms

    * linear regression * regression to the mean * regression testing (computing) * regression therapy (psychotherapy)