Re: [Caml-list] Factorial function

["William D. Neumann" <wneumann@cs.unm.edu>]

On Tue, 23 Jan 2007, Lucas Holland wrote:

> Hi, why does this function:
>
> let rec fact n =
> 	n * fact (n-1);;
>
> yield an overflow error if called with n = 5?

It overflows because you don't provide a base case for the recursion (e.g. 
if n = 1 then 1 else ...), it simply cycles backwards through the ints 
until the stack is exhausted.

Also, if you're just learning OCaml, you may want to use the Caml 
Beginners list for these types of questions.  You con find the list 
information at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners

William D. Neumann

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