Converting For loops into recursive functions

What are the general ideas of converting for loops and nested for loops I have written into recursive functions that dont need loops to run. Is there anywhere I can learn more about recursive functions. Thanks

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Example:

function total = total_it(X)
  total = 0;
  for K = 1 : length(X)
    total = total + X.^K;
  end
end

can be changed to

function total = total_it(X)
  total = total_it_worker(X,1);
end
function total = total_it_worker(X,K)
   if isempty(X)
     total = 0;
   else
     total = X(1).^K + total_it_worker(X(2:end),K+1);
   end
 end