stack overflow

[Anon]

I am using recursion . What is stack overflow and how we can aviod it. although a i have some idea but i am not sure what to do .

[brandonschnell]

a stack overflow is when the stack expands father than expected and crashes into the program data space. stack space is used when variables are created and functions are called.

1) reduce the number of variables that are created every single time the function is called. create the variables and pass to each function the variables to use so that no variables are created within the recursive function. there is still some overhead when the function is created.

2) rewrite the function so that is not recursive (use a while loop).

[Anon]

A common error that ALWAYS causes stack overflow using recursion is when you don't specify the exit condition.
For example, try to calculate the factorial for a number in this way:
function fact($n) {
return ($n==0) ? 1 : $n * fact($n-1);
}
fact(5);
Works fine ....

Now, don't specify the condition:
function fact($n) {
return $n * fact($n-1);
}
fact(5);
It crashes! Hope this can help you.
Paolo