C programming , recursion

That is because you are calling main before printing.

if you do:

#include <stdio.h> void main(){ static int n=7; if(n){ n--; // main(); printf("%d",n); main(); } return; } 

You will get the output: 6543210

But in your case, it will print only when the value of n is 0. And since 7 print is pending therefore 0000000

There exists only one variable since it's static. A slight modification (including the fix of void return type) demonstrates it:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) { static int n=7; if(n) { n--; printf("%d",n); main(); printf("%d",n); } } 

Output:

65432100000000 

The best way to trace it probably is using gdb to follow it along.

If you declare n as static, it's value would be preserved across function calls. Note that you are calling printf after the recursive step (calling main). This causes printf to see the value of n after all the calls to main.

Think of this sequence, executing with n = 2

if (n) // first time, n == 2. n--; // n == 1 main(); if (n) // second time, n == 1 n--; main(); if (n) // third time, n == 0, fails printf("%d",n); // n == 0. printf("%d",n); // n == 0.