Why does apply with too many arguments throw "Maximum call stack size exceeded"?

Question

In Chrome and Node, the following code throws an error:

function noop() {}
var a = new Array(1e6)
// Array[1000000]
noop.apply(null, a)
// Uncaught RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded

I understand why it might be a Bad Idea to pass 1 million arguments to a function, but can anyone explain why the error is Maximum call stack size exceeded instead of something more relevant?

(In case this seems frivolous, the original case was Math.max.apply(Math, lotsOfNumbers), which is a not-unreasonable way of getting the max number from an array.)

…because function arguments are stored on the stack? – Bergi Feb 16 '17 at 02:18 — Bergi, Feb 16 '17 at 02:18
Well, yes, that's the piece of info I was missing :) – nrabinowitz Feb 16 '17 at 03:44 — nrabinowitz, Feb 16 '17 at 03:44

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 16 '17 at 01:19

12

Function arguments are put on the stack. You're trying to put a million arguments onto the stack, and that's more than the maximum stack size. So the error message is very relevant to the reason for the error.

answered Feb 16 '17 at 01:19

Barmar

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For anyone wanting more specific browser stack size limitations, I found this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7826992/browser-javascript-stack-size-limit – chrispy Feb 16 '17 at 01:38

Why does apply with too many arguments throw "Maximum call stack size exceeded"?

1 Answers1

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