Thread: hey guys new to recursion any ideas for me?

Your algorithm needs a little work. Try this:

1. See if your current number n is 1. If it is, return 1.
2. Otherwise, sum(n) = sum(n-1) + n

many thanks for the reply helloworld i have ammended it but having one error cant quiet see where im going wrong.

HTML Code:

import java.util.Scanner;
public class SumTester
{
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);	
		System.out.println("\nPlease Enter n"); // get n from user
		int n = in.nextInt();			
	}	 
		
		// recursively computes the sum of the first n integers
		public static int sum(int n)
		{
			if (n ==1)
				return 1;
			else
				return sum(n) = sum(n-1) + n;
				
			System.out.println("sum" + (n) + "=" + (n));
			}
	
}

Your printing out statement in sum can never be reached (can you see why?). Java's compiler recognizes this and will through an error. Put that print out statement somewhere inside your main method, and as chris said, call the method

System.out.println("The sum is " + sum(n));