Does it matter where free(node) is placed in this code? (Recursion)

I'm doing some C programming exercise questions and am not sure about this one:

Does it matter if we place the "free(node);" statement before the recursive call? Please explain.

Code:

---

void deleteList(struct contact* node) {

  if (node != NULL) {       
  deleteList(node->next);   

  free(node);
  }
  }


---

I was thinking it does matter because if free(node) were placed above the recursive call it would delete the node and then there would be no connection to the next element of the linked list. Is this correct thinking?

Thanks.

That would be correct.

You could create a local variable to point at node->next though and then there would be no problem in deleting node before the recursive call. This creates a local variable though which is kind of a drawback with a recursive implementation.