Understanding Java Recursive Array Reversal

[apiwowar]

supposed to reverse an array of strings recursively. this is in a class that has an array object.

i came up with what's below. but it reverses the array in a weird order. the array is a 5 element array, the elements are {hello, how, are you, ?}. i passed in the object and after printed out the array and it came out as are hello you how ? which makes no sense to me.

im not sure why it printed out like that, shouldn't it just run through swapping first and last?

// reverse an array 
public void rev() 
{
    rev(0,a.length-1);
} 

private void rev(int first, int last)
{
    if(last == 0)
    {
    //do nothing
    }

    else
    {


    String temp = a[first];
    a[first] = a[last];
    a[last] = temp;

    
    rev(first+ 1, last-1);

    }
}

 

[Mark44]

Take a piece of paper and a pencil, and hand-simulate what is happening to your array (which I assume is an array of character strings).

The first call to rev comes in your main function. What happens? What happens in the recursive call to rev. Follow all the way through until last is 0.