Iteration or recursion, which one is good to use when a problem can be solved by either of them ?

Question

Some problems can be solved by iteration and recursion . Decision to chose either of them is depend on what factors ?

Comments

iteration is a performance gain for your computer and recursion is a performance gain for programmer.

Answer 1

1. Recursive algorithms tend to require more stack space than iterative algorithms. If the stack limit is too constraining then you will prefer iteration over recursion.
2. Also iteration is better in performance. Iterative functions are typically faster than their recursive counterparts. So, if speed is an issue, you would normally use iteration.
   Some procedures are very naturally programmed recursively, and all but unmanageable iteratively. So, it is better to go for Iteration.

Answer 2

Recursion is costlier (in terms of resource usages) then iteration if everything else is same. Having said that many compilers covert recursive code to iterative as part of optimization so life is easy and you can enjoy the power of recursion in place of using long code of iterative methods.