Recursion with termination condition Java

Question

I'm teaching myself about recursive calling of methods in java. I'm constantly getting StackOverFlowErroron my implementation:

    public class LimitedRecursion {
      public void m(int limit) {
        if (limit == 0) {
          System.out.println("finished2");
        }
        m(limit - 1);
      }
     }

i have set the limit to 42 in the main. Can someone point me to the right direction on this? Its supposed to terminate once limit == 0

Answer 1

This doesn't finish the recursion, since you don't exit the method when the condition is met, and you still make the next recursive call (m(limit - 1);) :

    if (limit == 0) {
      System.out.println("finished2");
    }
    m(limit - 1);

This will end the recursion :

    if (limit == 0) {
      System.out.println("finished2");
      return;
    }
    m(limit - 1);

Answer 2

The correct recursion can be :

    public class LimitedRecursion {
public void m(int limit) {
    if (limit == 0) {
        System.out.println("finished2");
    } else {
        m(limit - 1);
    }
}

}