What is the maximum recursion depth, and how to increase it?
python, recursion
Solution
It is a guard against a stack overflow, yes. Python (or rather, the CPython implementation) doesn't optimize tail recursion, and unbridled recursion causes stack overflows. You can check the recursion limit with `sys.getrecursionlimit`:
import sys
print(sys.getrecursionlimit())
and change the recursion limit with `sys.setrecursionlimit`:
sys.setrecursionlimit(1500)
but doing so is dangerous -- the standard limit is a little conservative, but Python stackframes can be quite big.
Python isn't a functional language and tail recursion is not a particularly efficient technique. Rewriting the algorithm iteratively, if possible, is generally a better idea.
Problem
I have this tail recursive function here: ``` def recursive_function(n, sum): if n < 1: return sum else: return recursive_function(n-1, sum+n) c = 998 print(recursive_function(c, 0)) ``` It works up to `n=997`, then it just breaks and spits out a `RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded in comparison`. Is this just a stack overflow? Is there a way to get around it?