Understanding "Replace Loops using Recursion" Lesson

JavaScript
#1

The Replace Loops using Recursion lesson was quite confusing for me, so this is my attempt to break it down into easier-to-understand bites.

Solution below:

function sum(arr, n) {
  if(n <= 0){
    return 0
  } else {
    return sum(arr, n - 1) + arr[n - 1]
  }
}

First, let’s look at the function call with an array (arr) and an index (n)

sum([1, 3], 2)

Our function’s if statement will first check if the index (2 in this example) is less than or equal to 0. Since 2 is greater than 0, we move to our else statement.

return sum(arr, n - 1) + arr[n - 1]

Using the array and the index from our original function call sum([1, 3], 2), the else statement will look something like this:

return sum([1, 3], 2 - 1) + arr[2 - 1]

or

return sum([1, 3],  1) + 1

This means that the value of our array at index 1 (3) will be added to the value of 2-1 (1) which gives us the answer of 4.