Definition:Primitive Recursion/Partial Function

Definition
Let $f: \N^k \to \N$ and $g: \N^{k+2} \to \N$ be partial functions.

Let $\tuple {n_1, n_2, \ldots, n_k} \in \N^k$.

Then the partial function $h: \N^{k + 1} \to \N$ is obtained from $f$ and $g$ by primitive recursion :
 * $\forall n \in \N: \map h {n_1, n_2, \ldots, n_k, n} \approx \begin {cases}

\map f {n_1, n_2, \ldots, n_k} & : n = 0 \\ \map g {n_1, n_2, \ldots, n_k, n - 1, \map h {n_1, n_2, \ldots, n_k, n - 1} } & : n > 0 \end{cases}$

where $\approx$ is as defined in Partial Function Equality.

Note that $\map h {n_1, n_2, \ldots, n_k, n}$ is defined only when:
 * $\map h {n_1, n_2, \ldots, n_k, n - 1}$ is defined
 * $\map g {n_1, n_2, \ldots, n_k, n - 1, \map h {n_1, n_2, \ldots, n_k, n - 1} }$ is defined.