java - Recursive function to check whether sub-array

Question

I am trying to write a recursive function to check whether one array is contained in a second array (my example is also sub-array) and returns true or false.

For example: [d, e] is contained in [a, b??, c, d, e, f]

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I know how to check without recursion (using for loops), but can not think of a solution using recursion.

Answer 1

The principle is the following:

0) If the first array is longer than the second one, it's not a subarray.

1) If the second array begins with the first (like [a,b] and [a,b,c,d]), then it's a subarray.

2) Else: If the first array is a subarray of the tail of the second one (that means, the part after the first element), then it's a subarray.

Just to be sure: tail([a,b,c,d]) == [b,c,d] (since I don't know how that's called in Java.)