Are stack overflow errors considered memory leak errors?

Question

In Java? Yes or no? Simple question, but I can't find a definitive answer anywhere. Most explanations of memory leaks I read only concern the heap, as if this cannot happen in the stack.

This is not answered by the "Creating a memory leak with Java" stack overflow question because that article makes no mention of whether stack overflow errors are considered a kind of memory leak.

Possible duplicate of [Creating a memory leak with Java](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6470651/creating-a-memory-leak-with-java) — MC Emperor, Jan 14 '19 at 07:34
@MC Emperor I added an explanation of why this question is not answered by that — Wes, Jan 14 '19 at 07:39

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 14 '19 at 16:18

11

A memory leak is a scenario that occurs when objects are no longer being used by the application. I think in the case of a recursive call, the objects are required at a later point. So I would not consider a stack overflow error a memory leak.

edited Jan 14 '19 at 16:18

Boann

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answered Jan 14 '19 at 07:33

Shashank

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Nice way of putting it. – Boris the Spider Jan 14 '19 at 07:34
Thanks, I was considering using this as a simple answer to "how to create a memory leak in Java?" interview question but it looks like I would be dead wrong – Wes Jan 14 '19 at 07:35

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 14 '19 at 16:18

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"Memory leak", in brief, refers to the scenario that memory is allocated but not released even if it is no longer needed.

A stack overflow itself is NOT causing any unneeded memory to fail to be released. There is no reason that you can treat a stack overflow as a "memory leak".

edited Jan 14 '19 at 16:18

Boann

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answered Jan 14 '19 at 07:37

Adrian Shum

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Are stack overflow errors considered memory leak errors?

2 Answers2