Logic ?? Recursive Method

Question

The recursive programming below is supposed to print
the elements in reverse order. Can someone please      
explain the logic behind it. Thanks.
public void printRevList() {
if (next != null)     
next.printRevList();
System.out.println(element + " " );
}

Answer 1

It's a little incomplete, but if it truly is a piece of functioning recursive code, then you're basically pushing everything onto a stack, first element first, last element last, and then popping it off from the most recently pushed element down to earliest pushed element.
Assume 3 elements
1) call printRevlist on first element.
2) since the next element is not null, we go on to call next.printRevList()--remember, this must complete before we can call println, and notice that since there are no braces, println is called regardless of whether or not next was null
3) We are now in the second element's printRevList, as called from the first. The first has not yet printed. Next is not null, so we call next.printRevList. We won't print element 2 until element 3's printRevList completes
4) We are now in elem 3's printRevList. This time, next is null, so we don't recurse anymore--nothing else get's pushed on the stack. We simply print "el3 " and return
5) Now we're back in elem 2's printRevList, after having just completed elem 3's printRevList. So we print "el2 " and return
6) I'll let you fill this one in.
Let me know if it's still not making sense--recursion is not the easiest thing to get your brain around.
Jeff