Getting this error message: Maximum call stack size exceeded

Question

I'm trying to solve this leetcode problem. In this problem, I basically need to return the power of x.

But when I run my solution it returns this error message:

RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded

My code:

function myPow(base, exponent){
    if(exponent === 0) {
        return 1;
    } else if(exponent < 0){
        return (myPow(base,exponent + 1)/base);
    } else {
        return base * myPow(base,exponent-1);
    }
}

myPow(0.00001, 2147483647) // this test case is failing only I think

Updated code according to Luca Kiebel's suggestion

function myPow(base, exponent){
    if(exponent === 0) {
        return 1;
    } else if(exponent < 0){
        return (myPow(base,exponent + 1)/base);
    } else {
        return base ** myPow(base,exponent-1);
    }
}

Anyone please explain me where I'm making a mistake.

`RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded` means that your function has no end and the browser stops its execution to avoid freezing. You are returning a function that calls itself as long as the exponent is not 0. You might want to get a result with Math.pow, then return that result — savageGoat, Jan 27 '22 at 11:37
`function myPow(x,y) {return x**y}` will not throw that error — Luca Kiebel, Jan 27 '22 at 11:43
nor will `Math.pow(x,n)` which passes just fine on that leet code. Why did you try to reinvent the wheel? — Jamiec, Jan 27 '22 at 11:44
Hey @LucaKiebel just updated the code in the question, please check. I'm still getting the same error. Please let me know if I am doing anything incorrectly. — Rohan Singh, Jan 27 '22 at 11:47

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 27 '22 at 11:43

You're calling the function inside itself too many times, making the JS Engine think there's a problem, and killing it before it takes too much CPU/RAM.

Using Math.pow or a simple for loop (Instead of recursion) should fix the problem.

See Browser Javascript Stack size limit for how many times you can call a function inside another one

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 27 '22 at 11:41

0

You are basically getting that error because your function is calling itself multiple times, until a stack limit is reached.

You can try using Math.pow() function to achieve what you are trying to do.

answered Jan 27 '22 at 11:41

Spider-Man

50
1
7

Jamiec · Answer 3 · 2022-01-27T12:54:28.637

Recursion is not a good choice if you did want to roll your own raise-to-the-power function, but you can do it in a very simple loop

function myPow(x,n){
  var res = 1;
  for(var i=0;i<Math.abs(n);i++)
    res = n<0 ? res/x : res * x
  return res
}

console.log(myPow(2, 10), Math.pow(2,10), 2 ** 10)
console.log(myPow(2, -2), Math.pow(2,-2), 2 ** -2)
//console.log(myPow(0.00001, 2147483647), Math.pow(0.00001,2147483647), 0.00001 ** 2147483647)

But as you can see from the above examples, you're simply reinventing the wheen of Math.pow or the ** operator

Getting this error message: Maximum call stack size exceeded

3 Answers3