Shortest program that throws StackOverflow Error [closed]

Question

Write a program that throws a StackOverflow Error or the equivalent in the language used. For example, in java, the program should throw java.lang.StackOverflowError.

You are not allowed to define a function that calls itself or a new class(except the one containing main in java). It should use the classes of the selected programming language.

And it should not throw the error explicitly.

Answer 1

Node.js REPL (15)

eval(RegExp.$1)

Sample session:

> eval(RegExp.$1)
RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)
    at eval (eval at <anonymous> (repl:1:12), <anonymous>:1:12)

Answer 2

C, 24 characters (no cheating)

x(){main();}main(){x();}

Compile with default cc settings and ignore warnings.

C, 10 characters (with cheat)

X{Y;}Y{X;}

compile with:

cc -DX='x()' -DY='main()'

Answer 3

CoffeeScript/Javascript - Only in Chrome (24 chars)

Sorry for waking up an old post

This only works in Google Chrome (tested in Firefox and Chrome):

JSON.stringify a:5,->a:5

http://coffeescript.org/#try:JSON.stringify%20a%3A5%2C-%3Ea%3A5

This is not converting a circular structure to JSON. Actually, it uses the replacer function: the replacer function returns another object so the object ends up stringifying that object whose replacer also returns an object.

It gets compiled to the following JavaScript:

JSON.stringify({
  a: 5
}, function() {
  return {
    a: 5
  };
});

Tested on Chrome 39.

Answer 4

Lua, 29 bytes

This one causes a stack overflow by generating a new function every call and calling it.

l=loadstring s='l(s)()'l(s)()

Here are some other creative answers:

9 bytes:

dofile'a'

This causes a C-stack overflow. Requires you put it in a file named a.

39 bytes:

package.loaded.a=z require'a'

This causes a C-stack overflow. Requires to be put in a file named a and requires LUA_PATH=a.

Answer 5

Ruby - Proc fun - 18

a=->(b){b[b]};a[a]

Basic recursive solution. In irb ends up with:

SystemStackError: stack level too deep

Answer 6

ANTLR4 / Java, 103 Bytes

grammar P;
r:(C|N)+;
C:(('p'|'i')P);
P:(N|S)*;
N:[0-9]+;
S:[A-Za-z0-9_]*;
WS:[ \r\n]+ -> skip;

To use: Better create a new directory to put the file in, I used the common aliases shown on the antlr4 site.

antlr4 P.g4 && javac P*.java && echo 'Press Ctrl-D in 5 secs.' && grun P r -gui

Don't have any idea why this works, and I think it can be golfed much.

Answer 7

Rust, 29 bytes

fn main(){let a=[0;9000000];}

I hadn't thought it would be that easy. It actually gives segmentation fault, but given that it's rust, I'm pretty sure it's the stack that throws in the towel.

I wonder if the compiler ought to give a warning about stuff like this?

Answer 8

Java (OpenJDK 9), 70 bytes

public class Main{public static void main(String[] args){main(args);}}

Try it online!