What is a StackOverflowError

Question

What is a StackOverflowError  what causes it  and how should I deal with them

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Simple Java example  that cause java lang StackOverflowError because of bad recursive call class Human       Human            new Animal                    class Animal extends Human       Animal            super             public class Test01       public static void main String   args            new Animal

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Like you say  you need to show some code   -   A stack overflow error usually happens when your function calls nest too deeply  See the Stack Overflow Code Golf thread for some examples of how this happens  though in the case of that question  the answers intentionally cause stack overflow

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Here is an example of a recursive algorithm for reversing a singly linked list  On a laptop  with the following spec  4G memory  Intel Core i5 2 3GHz CPU  64 bit Windows 7   this function will run into StackOverflow error for a linked list of size close to 10 000    My point is that we should use recursion judiciously  always taking into account of the scale of the system  Often recursion can be converted to iterative program  which scales better   One iterative version of the same algorithm is given at the bottom of the page  it reverses a singly linked list of size 1 million in 9 milliseconds        private static LinkedListNode doReverseRecursively LinkedListNode x  LinkedListNode first        LinkedListNode second   first next       first next   x       if second    null           return doReverseRecursively first  second        else          return first           public static LinkedListNode reverseRecursively LinkedListNode head       return doReverseRecursively null  head       Iterative Version of the Same Algorithm       public static LinkedListNode reverseIteratively LinkedListNode head       return doReverseIteratively null  head         private static LinkedListNode doReverseIteratively LinkedListNode x  LinkedListNode first         while  first    null            LinkedListNode second   first next          first next   x          x   first           if  second    null                break            else               first   second                      return first      public static LinkedListNode reverseIteratively LinkedListNode head       return doReverseIteratively null  head

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A StackOverflowError is a runtime error in java    It is thrown when the amount of call stack memory allocated by JVM is exceeded    A common case of a StackOverflowError being thrown  is when call stack exceeds due to excessive deep or infinite recursion    Example    public class Factorial       public static int factorial int n           if n    1               return 1                    else              return n   factorial n-1                        public static void main String   args           System out println  Main method started            int result   Factorial factorial -1           System out println  Factorial    gt   result           System out println  Main method ended              Stack trace   Main method started Exception in thread  main  java lang StackOverflowError at com program stackoverflow Factorial factorial Factorial java 9  at com program stackoverflow Factorial factorial Factorial java 9  at com program stackoverflow Factorial factorial Factorial java 9    In the above case  it can be avoided by doing programmatic changes   But if the program logic is correct and it still occurs then you stack size needs to be increased

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To describe this  first let us understand how local variables and objects are stored   Local variable are stored in stack    If you looked at the image you should be able to understand how things are working   When a function call is invoked by a Java application  a stack frame is allocated on the call stack  The stack frame contains the parameters of the invoked method  its local parameters  and the return address of the method  The return address denotes the execution point from which  the program execution shall continue after the invoked method returns  If there is no space for a new stack frame then  the StackOverflowError is thrown by the Java Virtual Machine  JVM    The most common case that can possibly exhaust a Java application   s stack is recursion  In recursion  a method invokes itself during its execution  Recursion is considered as a powerful general-purpose programming technique but must be used with caution  to avoid StackOverflowError   An example of throwing a StackOverflowError is shown below   StackOverflowErrorExample java    x000D   x000D  public class StackOverflowErrorExample   x000D   x000D    public static void recursivePrint int num    x000D      System out println  Number      num   x000D   x000D      if  num    0  x000D        return  x000D      else x000D        recursivePrint   num   x000D      x000D   x000D    public static void main String   args    x000D      StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint 1   x000D      x000D    x000D   x000D   x000D    In this example  we define a recursive method  called recursivePrint that prints an integer and then  calls itself  with the next successive integer as an argument  The recursion ends until we pass in 0 as a parameter  However  in our example  we passed in the parameter from 1 and its increasing followers  consequently  the recursion will never terminate   A sample execution  using the -Xss1M flag that specifies the size of the thread stack to equal to 1MB  is shown below   Number  1 Number  2 Number  3     Number  6262 Number  6263 Number  6264 Number  6265 Number  6266 Exception in thread  main  java lang StackOverflowError         at java io PrintStream write PrintStream java 480          at sun nio cs StreamEncoder writeBytes StreamEncoder java 221          at sun nio cs StreamEncoder implFlushBuffer StreamEncoder java 291          at sun nio cs StreamEncoder flushBuffer StreamEncoder java 104          at java io OutputStreamWriter flushBuffer OutputStreamWriter java 185          at java io PrintStream write PrintStream java 527          at java io PrintStream print PrintStream java 669          at java io PrintStream println PrintStream java 806          at StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint StackOverflowErrorExample java 4          at StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint StackOverflowErrorExample java 9          at StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint StackOverflowErrorExample java 9          at StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint StackOverflowErrorExample java 9                Depending on the JVM   s initial configuration  the results may differ  but eventually the StackOverflowError shall be thrown  This example is a very good example of how recursion can cause problems  if not implemented with caution   How to deal with the StackOverflowError   The simplest solution is to carefully inspect the stack trace and detect the repeating pattern of line numbers  These line numbers indicate the code being recursively called  Once you detect these lines  you must carefully inspect your code and understand why the recursion never terminates   If you have verified that the recursion     is implemented correctly  you can increase the stack   s size  in     order to allow a larger number of invocations  Depending on the Java     Virtual Machine  JVM  installed  the default thread stack size may     equal to either 512KB  or 1MB  You can increase the thread stack     size using the -Xss flag  This flag can be specified either via the     project   s configuration  or via the command line  The format of the     -Xss argument is      -Xss lt size gt  g G m M k K

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To describe this  first let us understand how local variables and objects are stored   Local variable are stored in stack    If you looked at the image you should be able to understand how things are working   When a function call is invoked by a Java application  a stack frame is allocated on the call stack  The stack frame contains the parameters of the invoked method  its local parameters  and the return address of the method  The return address denotes the execution point from which  the program execution shall continue after the invoked method returns  If there is no space for a new stack frame then  the StackOverflowError is thrown by the Java Virtual Machine  JVM    The most common case that can possibly exhaust a Java application   s stack is recursion  In recursion  a method invokes itself during its execution  Recursion is considered as a powerful general-purpose programming technique but must be used with caution  to avoid StackOverflowError   An example of throwing a StackOverflowError is shown below   StackOverflowErrorExample java    x000D   x000D  public class StackOverflowErrorExample   x000D   x000D    public static void recursivePrint int num    x000D      System out println  Number      num   x000D   x000D      if  num    0  x000D        return  x000D      else x000D        recursivePrint   num   x000D      x000D   x000D    public static void main String   args    x000D      StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint 1   x000D      x000D    x000D   x000D   x000D    In this example  we define a recursive method  called recursivePrint that prints an integer and then  calls itself  with the next successive integer as an argument  The recursion ends until we pass in 0 as a parameter  However  in our example  we passed in the parameter from 1 and its increasing followers  consequently  the recursion will never terminate   A sample execution  using the -Xss1M flag that specifies the size of the thread stack to equal to 1MB  is shown below   Number  1 Number  2 Number  3     Number  6262 Number  6263 Number  6264 Number  6265 Number  6266 Exception in thread  main  java lang StackOverflowError         at java io PrintStream write PrintStream java 480          at sun nio cs StreamEncoder writeBytes StreamEncoder java 221          at sun nio cs StreamEncoder implFlushBuffer StreamEncoder java 291          at sun nio cs StreamEncoder flushBuffer StreamEncoder java 104          at java io OutputStreamWriter flushBuffer OutputStreamWriter java 185          at java io PrintStream write PrintStream java 527          at java io PrintStream print PrintStream java 669          at java io PrintStream println PrintStream java 806          at StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint StackOverflowErrorExample java 4          at StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint StackOverflowErrorExample java 9          at StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint StackOverflowErrorExample java 9          at StackOverflowErrorExample recursivePrint StackOverflowErrorExample java 9                Depending on the JVM   s initial configuration  the results may differ  but eventually the StackOverflowError shall be thrown  This example is a very good example of how recursion can cause problems  if not implemented with caution   How to deal with the StackOverflowError   The simplest solution is to carefully inspect the stack trace and detect the repeating pattern of line numbers  These line numbers indicate the code being recursively called  Once you detect these lines  you must carefully inspect your code and understand why the recursion never terminates   If you have verified that the recursion     is implemented correctly  you can increase the stack   s size  in     order to allow a larger number of invocations  Depending on the Java     Virtual Machine  JVM  installed  the default thread stack size may     equal to either 512KB  or 1MB  You can increase the thread stack     size using the -Xss flag  This flag can be specified either via the     project   s configuration  or via the command line  The format of the     -Xss argument is      -Xss lt size gt  g G m M k K

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Like you say  you need to show some code   -   A stack overflow error usually happens when your function calls nest too deeply  See the Stack Overflow Code Golf thread for some examples of how this happens  though in the case of that question  the answers intentionally cause stack overflow

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Here s an example  public static void main String   args        System out println add5 1       public static int add5 int a        return add5 a    5      A StackOverflowError basically is when you try to do something  that most likely calls itself  and goes on for infinity  or until it gives a StackOverflowError    add5 a  will call itself  and then call itself again  and so on

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The term  stack overrun  overflow   is often used but a misnomer  attacks do not overflow the stack but buffers on the stack   -- from lecture slides of Prof  Dr  Dieter Gollmann

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StackOverflowError is to the stack as OutOfMemoryError is to the heap   Unbounded recursive calls result in stack space being used up    The following example produces StackOverflowError   class  StackOverflowDemo       public static void unboundedRecursiveCall          unboundedRecursiveCall               public static void main String   args                 unboundedRecursiveCall              StackOverflowError is avoidable if recursive calls are bounded to prevent the aggregate total of incomplete in-memory calls  in bytes  from exceeding the stack size  in bytes

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This is a typical case of java lang StackOverflowError    The method is recursively calling itself with no exit in doubleValue    floatValue    etc   Rational java      public class Rational extends Number implements Comparable lt Rational gt            private int num          private int denom           public Rational int num  int denom                this num   num              this denom   denom                     public int compareTo Rational r                if   num   denom  -  r num   r denom   gt  0                    return  1                else if   num   denom  -  r num   r denom   lt  0                    return -1                            return 0                     public Rational add Rational r                return new Rational num   r num  denom   r denom                      public Rational sub Rational r                return new Rational num - r num  denom - r denom                      public Rational mul Rational r                return new Rational num   r num  denom   r denom                      public Rational div Rational r                return new Rational num   r denom  denom   r num                      public int gcd Rational r                int i   1              while  i    0                    i   denom   r denom                  denom   r denom                  r denom   i                            return denom                     public String toString                 String a   num         denom              return a                     public double doubleValue                 return  double  doubleValue                       public float floatValue                 return  float  floatValue                       public int intValue                 return  int  intValue                       public long longValue                 return  long  longValue                      Main java      public class Main            public static void main String   args                 Rational a   new Rational 2  4               Rational b   new Rational 2  6                System out println a           b           a add b                System out println a     -     b           a sub b                System out println a           b           a mul b                System out println a           b           a div b                 Rational   arr    new Rational 7  1   new Rational 6  1                       new Rational 5  1   new Rational 4  1                       new Rational 3  1   new Rational 2  1                       new Rational 1  1   new Rational 1  2                       new Rational 1  3   new Rational 1  4                       new Rational 1  5   new Rational 1  6                       new Rational 1  7   new Rational 1  8                       new Rational 1  9   new Rational 0  1                 selectSort arr                for  int i   0  i  lt  arr length - 1    i                    if  arr i  compareTo arr i   1    gt  0                        System exit 1                                                 Number n   new Rational 3  2                System out println n doubleValue                 System out println n floatValue                 System out println n intValue                 System out println n longValue                        public static  lt T extends Comparable lt   super T gt  gt  void selectSort T   array                 T temp              int mini               for  int i   0  i  lt  array length - 1    i                     mini   i                   for  int j   i   1  j  lt  array length    j                        if  array j  compareTo array mini    lt  0                            mini   j                                                           if  i    mini                        temp   array i                       array i    array mini                       array mini    temp                                                    Result      2 4   2 6   4 10     Exception in thread  main  java lang StackOverflowError     2 4 - 2 6   0 -2         at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64      2 4   2 6   4 24         at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64      2 4   2 6   12 8         at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64          at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64          at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64          at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64          at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64    Here is the source code of StackOverflowError in OpenJDK 7

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In a crunch  Below situation will bring Stack overflow error   public class Example3    public static void main String   args         main new String 1

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This is a typical case of java lang StackOverflowError    The method is recursively calling itself with no exit in doubleValue    floatValue    etc   Rational java      public class Rational extends Number implements Comparable lt Rational gt            private int num          private int denom           public Rational int num  int denom                this num   num              this denom   denom                     public int compareTo Rational r                if   num   denom  -  r num   r denom   gt  0                    return  1                else if   num   denom  -  r num   r denom   lt  0                    return -1                            return 0                     public Rational add Rational r                return new Rational num   r num  denom   r denom                      public Rational sub Rational r                return new Rational num - r num  denom - r denom                      public Rational mul Rational r                return new Rational num   r num  denom   r denom                      public Rational div Rational r                return new Rational num   r denom  denom   r num                      public int gcd Rational r                int i   1              while  i    0                    i   denom   r denom                  denom   r denom                  r denom   i                            return denom                     public String toString                 String a   num         denom              return a                     public double doubleValue                 return  double  doubleValue                       public float floatValue                 return  float  floatValue                       public int intValue                 return  int  intValue                       public long longValue                 return  long  longValue                      Main java      public class Main            public static void main String   args                 Rational a   new Rational 2  4               Rational b   new Rational 2  6                System out println a           b           a add b                System out println a     -     b           a sub b                System out println a           b           a mul b                System out println a           b           a div b                 Rational   arr    new Rational 7  1   new Rational 6  1                       new Rational 5  1   new Rational 4  1                       new Rational 3  1   new Rational 2  1                       new Rational 1  1   new Rational 1  2                       new Rational 1  3   new Rational 1  4                       new Rational 1  5   new Rational 1  6                       new Rational 1  7   new Rational 1  8                       new Rational 1  9   new Rational 0  1                 selectSort arr                for  int i   0  i  lt  arr length - 1    i                    if  arr i  compareTo arr i   1    gt  0                        System exit 1                                                 Number n   new Rational 3  2                System out println n doubleValue                 System out println n floatValue                 System out println n intValue                 System out println n longValue                        public static  lt T extends Comparable lt   super T gt  gt  void selectSort T   array                 T temp              int mini               for  int i   0  i  lt  array length - 1    i                     mini   i                   for  int j   i   1  j  lt  array length    j                        if  array j  compareTo array mini    lt  0                            mini   j                                                           if  i    mini                        temp   array i                       array i    array mini                       array mini    temp                                                    Result      2 4   2 6   4 10     Exception in thread  main  java lang StackOverflowError     2 4 - 2 6   0 -2         at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64      2 4   2 6   4 24         at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64      2 4   2 6   12 8         at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64          at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64          at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64          at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64          at com xetrasu Rational doubleValue Rational java 64    Here is the source code of StackOverflowError in OpenJDK 7

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StackOverflowError is to the stack as OutOfMemoryError is to the heap   Unbounded recursive calls result in stack space being used up    The following example produces StackOverflowError   class  StackOverflowDemo       public static void unboundedRecursiveCall          unboundedRecursiveCall               public static void main String   args                 unboundedRecursiveCall              StackOverflowError is avoidable if recursive calls are bounded to prevent the aggregate total of incomplete in-memory calls  in bytes  from exceeding the stack size  in bytes

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The most common cause of stack overflows is excessively deep or infinite recursion  If this is your problem  this tutorial about Java Recursion could help understand the problem

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In a crunch  Below situation will bring Stack overflow error   public class Example3    public static void main String   args         main new String 1

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Like you say  you need to show some code   -   A stack overflow error usually happens when your function calls nest too deeply  See the Stack Overflow Code Golf thread for some examples of how this happens  though in the case of that question  the answers intentionally cause stack overflow

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Stack overflow means exactly that  a stack overflows  Usually there s a one stack in the program that contains local-scope variables and addresses where to return when execution of a routine ends  That stack tends to be a fixed memory range somewhere in the memory  therefore it s limited how much it can contain values   If the stack is empty you can t pop  if you do you ll get stack underflow error   If the stack is full you can t push  if you do you ll get stack overflow error   So stack overflow appears where you allocate too much into the stack  For instance  in the mentioned recursion   Some implementations optimize out some forms of recursions  Tail recursion in particular  Tail recursive routines are form of routines where the recursive call appears as a final thing what the routine does  Such routine call gets simply reduced into a jump   Some implementations go so far as implement their own stacks for recursion  therefore they allow the recursion to continue until the system runs out of memory   Easiest thing you could try would be to increase your stack size if you can  If you can t do that though  the second best thing would be to look whether there s something that clearly causes the stack overflow  Try it by printing something before and after the call into routine  This helps you to find out the failing routine

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Stack overflow means exactly that  a stack overflows  Usually there s a one stack in the program that contains local-scope variables and addresses where to return when execution of a routine ends  That stack tends to be a fixed memory range somewhere in the memory  therefore it s limited how much it can contain values   If the stack is empty you can t pop  if you do you ll get stack underflow error   If the stack is full you can t push  if you do you ll get stack overflow error   So stack overflow appears where you allocate too much into the stack  For instance  in the mentioned recursion   Some implementations optimize out some forms of recursions  Tail recursion in particular  Tail recursive routines are form of routines where the recursive call appears as a final thing what the routine does  Such routine call gets simply reduced into a jump   Some implementations go so far as implement their own stacks for recursion  therefore they allow the recursion to continue until the system runs out of memory   Easiest thing you could try would be to increase your stack size if you can  If you can t do that though  the second best thing would be to look whether there s something that clearly causes the stack overflow  Try it by printing something before and after the call into routine  This helps you to find out the failing routine

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The term  stack overrun  overflow   is often used but a misnomer  attacks do not overflow the stack but buffers on the stack   -- from lecture slides of Prof  Dr  Dieter Gollmann

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Simple Java example  that cause java lang StackOverflowError because of bad recursive call class Human       Human            new Animal                    class Animal extends Human       Animal            super             public class Test01       public static void main String   args            new Animal

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Here s an example  public static void main String   args        System out println add5 1       public static int add5 int a        return add5 a    5      A StackOverflowError basically is when you try to do something  that most likely calls itself  and goes on for infinity  or until it gives a StackOverflowError    add5 a  will call itself  and then call itself again  and so on

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The stack has a space limit that depends on the OS  the normal size is 8MB  In Ubuntu  you can check that limit with   ulimit -u and it can be checked in other OS similarly   Any program make use of the stack at runtime  but to fully know when it is used you need to check an Assembly language  In x86 64 for example  the stack is used to   Save returning address when making a procedure call Save local variables Save special registers to restore them later Pass arguments to a procedure call  more than 6  Other  random unused stack base  canary values  padding      etc  If you don t know x86 64  normal case  you only need to know when the specific high-lvl programming language you are using compile to those actions  For example in C    1    a function call  2    local variables in function calls  including main   3    local variables in function calls  not main   4    a function call  5    normally a function call  it is generally irrelevant for a stack overflow   So  in C  only local variables and function calls make use of the stack  The 2  unique   ways of making a stack overflow are   Declaring too large local variables in main or in any function that its called  int array 10000  10000    A very deep or infinite recursion  too many function calls at the same time    To avoid a StackOverflowError you can    check if local variables are too big  order of 1 MB    use the heap  malloc calloc calls  or global variables   check for infinite recursion   you know what to do    correct it   check for normal too deep recursion   the easiest approach is to just change the implementation to be iterative    Notice also that global variables  include libraries  etc    don t make use of the stack  Only if the above does not work  change the stack size to the maximum on the specific OS  With Ubuntu for example    ulimit -s 32768  32 MB    This has never been the solution for any of my stack overflow errors  but I also don t have much experience  I have omitted special and or not standard cases in C  such as usage of alloc   and similar  because if you are using them you should already know exactly what you are doing  Cheers

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Parameters and local variables are allocated on the stack  with reference types  the object lives on the heap and a variable in the stack references that object on the heap   The stack typically lives at the upper end of your address space and as it is used up it heads towards the bottom of the address space  i e  towards zero    Your process also has a heap  which lives at the bottom end of your process  As you allocate memory  this heap can grow towards the upper end of your address space  As you can see  there is a potential for the heap to  collide  with the stack  a bit like tectonic plates       The common cause for a stack overflow is a bad recursive call  Typically  this is caused when your recursive functions doesn t have the correct termination condition  so it ends up calling itself forever  Or when the termination condition is fine  it can be caused by requiring too many recursive calls before fulfilling it   However  with GUI programming  it s possible to generate indirect recursion  For example  your app may be handling paint messages  and  whilst processing them  it may call a function that causes the system to send another paint message  Here you ve not explicitly called yourself  but the OS VM has done it for you   To deal with them  you ll need to examine your code  If you ve got functions that call themselves then check that you ve got a terminating condition  If you have  then check that when calling the function you have at least modified one of the arguments  otherwise there ll be no visible change for the recursively called function and the terminating condition is useless  Also mind that your stack space can run out of memory before reaching a valid terminating condition  thus make sure your method can handle input values requiring more recursive calls   If you ve got no obvious recursive functions then check to see if you re calling any library functions that indirectly will cause your function to be called  like the implicit case above

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A stack overflow is usually called by nesting function calls too deeply  especially easy when using recursion  i e  a function that calls itself  or allocating a large amount of memory on the stack where using the heap would be more appropriate

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If you have a function like   int foo            more stuff     foo        Then foo   will keep calling itself  getting deeper and deeper  and when the space used to keep track of what functions you re in is filled up  you get the stack overflow error

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Stack overflow means exactly that  a stack overflows  Usually there s a one stack in the program that contains local-scope variables and addresses where to return when execution of a routine ends  That stack tends to be a fixed memory range somewhere in the memory  therefore it s limited how much it can contain values   If the stack is empty you can t pop  if you do you ll get stack underflow error   If the stack is full you can t push  if you do you ll get stack overflow error   So stack overflow appears where you allocate too much into the stack  For instance  in the mentioned recursion   Some implementations optimize out some forms of recursions  Tail recursion in particular  Tail recursive routines are form of routines where the recursive call appears as a final thing what the routine does  Such routine call gets simply reduced into a jump   Some implementations go so far as implement their own stacks for recursion  therefore they allow the recursion to continue until the system runs out of memory   Easiest thing you could try would be to increase your stack size if you can  If you can t do that though  the second best thing would be to look whether there s something that clearly causes the stack overflow  Try it by printing something before and after the call into routine  This helps you to find out the failing routine

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Parameters and local variables are allocated on the stack  with reference types  the object lives on the heap and a variable in the stack references that object on the heap   The stack typically lives at the upper end of your address space and as it is used up it heads towards the bottom of the address space  i e  towards zero    Your process also has a heap  which lives at the bottom end of your process  As you allocate memory  this heap can grow towards the upper end of your address space  As you can see  there is a potential for the heap to  collide  with the stack  a bit like tectonic plates       The common cause for a stack overflow is a bad recursive call  Typically  this is caused when your recursive functions doesn t have the correct termination condition  so it ends up calling itself forever  Or when the termination condition is fine  it can be caused by requiring too many recursive calls before fulfilling it   However  with GUI programming  it s possible to generate indirect recursion  For example  your app may be handling paint messages  and  whilst processing them  it may call a function that causes the system to send another paint message  Here you ve not explicitly called yourself  but the OS VM has done it for you   To deal with them  you ll need to examine your code  If you ve got functions that call themselves then check that you ve got a terminating condition  If you have  then check that when calling the function you have at least modified one of the arguments  otherwise there ll be no visible change for the recursively called function and the terminating condition is useless  Also mind that your stack space can run out of memory before reaching a valid terminating condition  thus make sure your method can handle input values requiring more recursive calls   If you ve got no obvious recursive functions then check to see if you re calling any library functions that indirectly will cause your function to be called  like the implicit case above

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If you have a function like   int foo            more stuff     foo        Then foo   will keep calling itself  getting deeper and deeper  and when the space used to keep track of what functions you re in is filled up  you get the stack overflow error

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If you have a function like   int foo            more stuff     foo        Then foo   will keep calling itself  getting deeper and deeper  and when the space used to keep track of what functions you re in is filled up  you get the stack overflow error

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The stack has a space limit that depends on the OS  the normal size is 8MB  In Ubuntu  you can check that limit with   ulimit -u and it can be checked in other OS similarly   Any program make use of the stack at runtime  but to fully know when it is used you need to check an Assembly language  In x86 64 for example  the stack is used to   Save returning address when making a procedure call Save local variables Save special registers to restore them later Pass arguments to a procedure call  more than 6  Other  random unused stack base  canary values  padding      etc  If you don t know x86 64  normal case  you only need to know when the specific high-lvl programming language you are using compile to those actions  For example in C    1    a function call  2    local variables in function calls  including main   3    local variables in function calls  not main   4    a function call  5    normally a function call  it is generally irrelevant for a stack overflow   So  in C  only local variables and function calls make use of the stack  The 2  unique   ways of making a stack overflow are   Declaring too large local variables in main or in any function that its called  int array 10000  10000    A very deep or infinite recursion  too many function calls at the same time    To avoid a StackOverflowError you can    check if local variables are too big  order of 1 MB    use the heap  malloc calloc calls  or global variables   check for infinite recursion   you know what to do    correct it   check for normal too deep recursion   the easiest approach is to just change the implementation to be iterative    Notice also that global variables  include libraries  etc    don t make use of the stack  Only if the above does not work  change the stack size to the maximum on the specific OS  With Ubuntu for example    ulimit -s 32768  32 MB    This has never been the solution for any of my stack overflow errors  but I also don t have much experience  I have omitted special and or not standard cases in C  such as usage of alloc   and similar  because if you are using them you should already know exactly what you are doing  Cheers

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A stack overflow is usually called by nesting function calls too deeply  especially easy when using recursion  i e  a function that calls itself  or allocating a large amount of memory on the stack where using the heap would be more appropriate

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A StackOverflowError is a runtime error in java    It is thrown when the amount of call stack memory allocated by JVM is exceeded    A common case of a StackOverflowError being thrown  is when call stack exceeds due to excessive deep or infinite recursion    Example    public class Factorial       public static int factorial int n           if n    1               return 1                    else              return n   factorial n-1                        public static void main String   args           System out println  Main method started            int result   Factorial factorial -1           System out println  Factorial    gt   result           System out println  Main method ended              Stack trace   Main method started Exception in thread  main  java lang StackOverflowError at com program stackoverflow Factorial factorial Factorial java 9  at com program stackoverflow Factorial factorial Factorial java 9  at com program stackoverflow Factorial factorial Factorial java 9    In the above case  it can be avoided by doing programmatic changes   But if the program logic is correct and it still occurs then you stack size needs to be increased

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If you have a function like   int foo            more stuff     foo        Then foo   will keep calling itself  getting deeper and deeper  and when the space used to keep track of what functions you re in is filled up  you get the stack overflow error

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Like you say  you need to show some code   -   A stack overflow error usually happens when your function calls nest too deeply  See the Stack Overflow Code Golf thread for some examples of how this happens  though in the case of that question  the answers intentionally cause stack overflow

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Here is an example of a recursive algorithm for reversing a singly linked list  On a laptop  with the following spec  4G memory  Intel Core i5 2 3GHz CPU  64 bit Windows 7   this function will run into StackOverflow error for a linked list of size close to 10 000    My point is that we should use recursion judiciously  always taking into account of the scale of the system  Often recursion can be converted to iterative program  which scales better   One iterative version of the same algorithm is given at the bottom of the page  it reverses a singly linked list of size 1 million in 9 milliseconds        private static LinkedListNode doReverseRecursively LinkedListNode x  LinkedListNode first        LinkedListNode second   first next       first next   x       if second    null           return doReverseRecursively first  second        else          return first           public static LinkedListNode reverseRecursively LinkedListNode head       return doReverseRecursively null  head       Iterative Version of the Same Algorithm       public static LinkedListNode reverseIteratively LinkedListNode head       return doReverseIteratively null  head         private static LinkedListNode doReverseIteratively LinkedListNode x  LinkedListNode first         while  first    null            LinkedListNode second   first next          first next   x          x   first           if  second    null                break            else               first   second                      return first      public static LinkedListNode reverseIteratively LinkedListNode head       return doReverseIteratively null  head

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The most common cause of stack overflows is excessively deep or infinite recursion  If this is your problem  this tutorial about Java Recursion could help understand the problem

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The most common cause of stack overflows is excessively deep or infinite recursion  If this is your problem  this tutorial about Java Recursion could help understand the problem

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Parameters and local variables are allocated on the stack  with reference types  the object lives on the heap and a variable in the stack references that object on the heap   The stack typically lives at the upper end of your address space and as it is used up it heads towards the bottom of the address space  i e  towards zero    Your process also has a heap  which lives at the bottom end of your process  As you allocate memory  this heap can grow towards the upper end of your address space  As you can see  there is a potential for the heap to  collide  with the stack  a bit like tectonic plates       The common cause for a stack overflow is a bad recursive call  Typically  this is caused when your recursive functions doesn t have the correct termination condition  so it ends up calling itself forever  Or when the termination condition is fine  it can be caused by requiring too many recursive calls before fulfilling it   However  with GUI programming  it s possible to generate indirect recursion  For example  your app may be handling paint messages  and  whilst processing them  it may call a function that causes the system to send another paint message  Here you ve not explicitly called yourself  but the OS VM has done it for you   To deal with them  you ll need to examine your code  If you ve got functions that call themselves then check that you ve got a terminating condition  If you have  then check that when calling the function you have at least modified one of the arguments  otherwise there ll be no visible change for the recursively called function and the terminating condition is useless  Also mind that your stack space can run out of memory before reaching a valid terminating condition  thus make sure your method can handle input values requiring more recursive calls   If you ve got no obvious recursive functions then check to see if you re calling any library functions that indirectly will cause your function to be called  like the implicit case above

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Parameters and local variables are allocated on the stack  with reference types  the object lives on the heap and a variable in the stack references that object on the heap   The stack typically lives at the upper end of your address space and as it is used up it heads towards the bottom of the address space  i e  towards zero    Your process also has a heap  which lives at the bottom end of your process  As you allocate memory  this heap can grow towards the upper end of your address space  As you can see  there is a potential for the heap to  collide  with the stack  a bit like tectonic plates       The common cause for a stack overflow is a bad recursive call  Typically  this is caused when your recursive functions doesn t have the correct termination condition  so it ends up calling itself forever  Or when the termination condition is fine  it can be caused by requiring too many recursive calls before fulfilling it   However  with GUI programming  it s possible to generate indirect recursion  For example  your app may be handling paint messages  and  whilst processing them  it may call a function that causes the system to send another paint message  Here you ve not explicitly called yourself  but the OS VM has done it for you   To deal with them  you ll need to examine your code  If you ve got functions that call themselves then check that you ve got a terminating condition  If you have  then check that when calling the function you have at least modified one of the arguments  otherwise there ll be no visible change for the recursively called function and the terminating condition is useless  Also mind that your stack space can run out of memory before reaching a valid terminating condition  thus make sure your method can handle input values requiring more recursive calls   If you ve got no obvious recursive functions then check to see if you re calling any library functions that indirectly will cause your function to be called  like the implicit case above

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A stack overflow is usually called by nesting function calls too deeply  especially easy when using recursion  i e  a function that calls itself  or allocating a large amount of memory on the stack where using the heap would be more appropriate

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The most common cause of stack overflows is excessively deep or infinite recursion  If this is your problem  this tutorial about Java Recursion could help understand the problem

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Stack overflow means exactly that  a stack overflows  Usually there s a one stack in the program that contains local-scope variables and addresses where to return when execution of a routine ends  That stack tends to be a fixed memory range somewhere in the memory  therefore it s limited how much it can contain values   If the stack is empty you can t pop  if you do you ll get stack underflow error   If the stack is full you can t push  if you do you ll get stack overflow error   So stack overflow appears where you allocate too much into the stack  For instance  in the mentioned recursion   Some implementations optimize out some forms of recursions  Tail recursion in particular  Tail recursive routines are form of routines where the recursive call appears as a final thing what the routine does  Such routine call gets simply reduced into a jump   Some implementations go so far as implement their own stacks for recursion  therefore they allow the recursion to continue until the system runs out of memory   Easiest thing you could try would be to increase your stack size if you can  If you can t do that though  the second best thing would be to look whether there s something that clearly causes the stack overflow  Try it by printing something before and after the call into routine  This helps you to find out the failing routine

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A stack overflow is usually called by nesting function calls too deeply  especially easy when using recursion  i e  a function that calls itself  or allocating a large amount of memory on the stack where using the heap would be more appropriate

[memory-leaks] What is a StackOverflowError?

Examples related to memory-leaks

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