Consider the following Python code snippet:def factorial(n): if n == ...
The Python code recursively calculates the factorial of a number (5 in this case).
View all questions of this test
Consider the following Python code snippet:def factorial(n): if n == ...
The code snippet provided is a recursive implementation of the factorial function in Python. The factorial of a non-negative integer n is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to n.
The given code defines a function named factorial which takes an integer n as input. It uses a conditional statement to check if n is equal to 0. If it is, the function returns 1, as the factorial of 0 is defined to be 1. If n is not equal to 0, the function recursively calls itself with the argument n - 1 and multiplies the result by n before returning it.
Let's go through the code step by step:
1. The function `factorial()` is defined with the parameter `n`.
2. Inside the function, it checks if `n` is equal to 0 using the conditional statement `if n == 0:`.
3. If the condition is true, i.e., `n` is indeed 0, the function returns 1 using the `return 1` statement.
4. If the condition is false, i.e., `n` is not 0, the function recursively calls itself with the argument `n - 1` and multiplies the result by `n` using the statement `return n * factorial(n - 1)`.
5. The variable `result` is assigned the value returned by calling the `factorial()` function with the argument 5, i.e., `factorial(5)`.
6. Finally, the value of `result` is printed using the `print(result)` statement.
The recursive calls in the factorial function can be visualized as follows:
- factorial(5)
- 5 * factorial(4)
- 4 * factorial(3)
- 3 * factorial(2)
- 2 * factorial(1)
- 1 * factorial(0)
- returns 1
- returns 1 * 1 = 1
- returns 2 * 1 = 2
- returns 3 * 2 = 6
- returns 4 * 6 = 24
- returns 5 * 24 = 120
Therefore, the output of the given code will be 120, which corresponds to the factorial of 5.
Consider the following Python code snippet:def factorial(n): if n == ...
1