Borislav Hadzhiev
Tue Oct 19 2021·2 min read
Photo by Elizeu Dias
The "RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded" error occurs when a function is being called so many times that the invocations exceed the call stack limit. To solve the error, specify a base case that has to be met to exit the recursion.
Here's an example of how the error occurs.
function example() { // ⛔️ RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded example(); } example();
We call the function, which then calls itself until the call stack limit is exceeded.
To solve the error, we have to specify a condition at which the function stops calling itself.
let counter = 0; function example(num) { if (num < 0) { return; // 👈️ this stops the function from endlessly calling itself } counter += 1; example(num - 1); } example(4); console.log(counter); // 👉️ 5
This time we check if the function was invoked with a number that is less than
0
on every invocation.
If the number is less than 0
, we simply return from the function so we don't
exceed the call stack's limit.
If the passed in value is not less than zero, we call the function with the
passed in value - 1
, which keeps us moving toward the case where the if
check is satisfied.
You might also get this error if you have an infinite loop that calls a function somewhere.
function sum(a, b) { return a + b; } while (true) { sum(10, 10); }
while
loop keeps calling the function and since we don't have a condition that would exit the loop we eventually exceed the call stack size.This works in a very similar way to a function calling itself without a base
condition. The same would be the case if you were using a for
loop.
Here's an example of how to specify a condition that has to be met to exit the loop.
function sum(a, b) { return a + b; } let total = 0; for (let i = 10; i > 0; i--) { total += sum(5, 5); } console.log(total); // 👉️ 100
If the i
variable is equal to or less than 0
, the condition in the for
loop is not satisfied, so we exit the loop.
If you can't track exactly where your error occurs, look at the error message in your browser's console or your terminal (if using Node.js).
The screenshot above shows that the error occurred on line 25
in the
index.js
file.
You can check which scripts are loaded on your page by opening the Network
tab
in your browser's developer tools and refreshing the page.