JS Uncaught RangeError: maximum call stack size exceeded

Question

Uncaught RangeError: maximum call stack size exceeded
What does this mean?
https://code.sololearn.com/W80juo0kJaPh/?ref=app

Answer 1

If you are trying to code a recursive function then you'll need a base case that stops the function to invoke itself, so your problem is that the factorial function will never end thus you are getting that error, try this

if(n!=0)
return n*factorial(n-1);
else
return 1;

in this case the first option will be the recursive case that invokes the function only if n is diferent from 0 otherwise it will return 1 this being the base case and stopping the recursive function

Answer 2

Oliver AF is right but this kind of recursion still causes trouble in JS because it's not tail recursive.
Because you do n*factorial(n-1), every call on the stack has to complete first before it actually starts calculating the product of n and factorial(n-1). This way, the call stack just keeps growing all the time and at higher numbers you quickly get a "maximum call stack size exceeded".

The new JS V8 engine can optimize for tail call ercursion. In order to make this function tail call recursive you could accept n as an extra parameter in the function itself. So instead of returning n*factorial(n-1) you return factorial(n, n-1). This way no computation has to be done on the result of your function call and the stack doesn't keep growing.

Edit: here's a tail recursive version:
function factorial(n, a = 1) {
if(n === 0) return a;
return factorial(n - 1, n * a);
}

you can just call this as factorial(n) and a will get a default value of 1 in the first call.

Answer 3

Thanks Oliver and Brendon

Answer 4

i have the same problem with factorial with a big number , I need to calculate the probability Cn,k = n! / k!(n-k)! but i have this error with the factorial function, even when i tried with this :

function factorial(n, a = 1) {
if(n === 0) return a;
return factorial(n - 1, n * a);
}
undefined
factorial(200000)
VM617:1 Uncaught RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded
at factorial (<anonymous>:1:19)
at factorial (<anonymous>:3:12)
at factorial (<anonymous>:3:12)
at factorial (<anonymous>:3:12)
at factorial (<anonymous>:3:12)
at factorial (<anonymous>:3:12)
at factorial (<anonymous>:3:12)
at factorial (<anonymous>:3:12)
at factorial (<anonymous>:3:12)
at factorial (<anonymous>:3:12)