Why does this recursion give following output?

I have an exercise with following code:

def rec_count(number):
    print(number)
    # Base case
    if number == 0:
        return 0
    rec_count(number - 1)  # A recursive call with a different argument
    print(number)


rec_count(5)

which gives this output:

5
4
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
4
5

I don’t understand why after reaching 0 function doesn’t go on with negative numbers, and gives numbers from 1 to 5 instead. Can someone explain?

Thanks in advance

>Solution :

Regarding negative numbers: when rec_count(0) is called, we encounter a return statement before reaching rec_count(0-1). As soon as a return statement is reached, execution of the function ends, so rec_count(-1) is never called.

Regarding increasing numbers: note that there is a print(number) statement after the recursive rec_count call.