how to deliberately trigger a StackOverflowException without using recursion?

Question

I was told that every method has a stack the size of 1mb. So I assumed that initializing 256 integer values in one method will cause a StackOverflowException. I tried that in code, but no exception was thrown.

So, how to deliberately trigger a StackOverflowException without using recursion?

256 integers is = 256 * 4 bytes = 1024 bytes = 1 kb, not 1 MB. Therefor, you would need 256000 integers. And I wouldn't even try to write a code with 256000 declarations. (edit: and Marc Gravells is always faster) :) — Kornelije Petak
– Kornelije Petak, Commented Oct 10, 2011 at 8:28
It would be pretty bad if you could only use 256 * 4 bytes of memory in a single method... On the other hand, it would probably help keep methods small! :-) — user
– user, Commented Oct 10, 2011 at 8:30

Yahia · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-10 08:27:58Z

18

use

throw new StackOverflowException ();

answered Oct 10, 2011 at 8:27

Yahia

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user Over a year ago

+1. Always use the simplest approach that gets the result you are after? :)

Marc Gravell · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-10 08:29:28Z

8

stackalloc is probably the easiest way (assuming you want the runtime to throw the error, rather than yourself):

    unsafe void Boom()
    {
        int* data = stackalloc int[512 * 1024]; // 2MB
    }

answered Oct 10, 2011 at 8:29

Marc Gravell

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Yahia Over a year ago

is there any difference if used on 64 Bit system ? Is the stack bigger ?

xanatos · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-10 12:08:24Z

6

I'll add another method :-)

unsafe struct FixedBufferExample
{
    public fixed byte Buffer[128 * 1024]; // This is a fixed buffer.
}

Now this structure is 128kb :-) If you declare a local variable (of a method that doesn't use yield or async) of type FixedBufferExample it should use 128kb of stack. You can use up your stack quite quickly.

edited Oct 10, 2011 at 12:08

answered Oct 10, 2011 at 8:43

xanatos

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