Stack overrun

Question

Hi
I’m working on a script that reads a text file, creates objects from tags it finds using a recursive function, pushes these objects into an array, and then adds these to the layout. It works for up to about 400 objects, but above that I get a “Stack overrun” error. Is this InDesign’s way of telling me it has run out of memory?
Here is the first part of my code:
var myFile = File.openDialog("Choose a data file");
var listingString = "listing";
var myArray = [];
if((myFile != "") && (myFile != null)){
    var sourceFile = new File(myFile);
    sourceFile.open();
    var myString = sourceFile.read();
    sourceFile.close();
    var endIndex;
    var listingContents;
    var foundTags;
    var listing;
    var tagStart;
    var tagEnd;
    var tagContent;
    function checkString(startIndex){
        endIndex = myString.indexOf("</" + listingString + ">", startIndex);
        if(endIndex != -1){
            listingContents = myString.slice(startIndex + 2 + listingString.length, endIndex);
            foundTags = listingContents.match(/<[a-z ]+>/gi);
            listing = {};
            for(i = 0; i < foundTags.length; i++){
                tagStart = listingContents.indexOf(foundTags[i]) + foundTags[i].length + 1;
                tagEnd = listingContents.indexOf("</" + foundTags[i].substring(1)) - 1;
                tagContent = listingContents.slice(tagStart, tagEnd);
                listing[foundTags[i].substr(1, foundTags[i].length - 2)] = tagContent;
            myArray.push(listing);
            checkString(endIndex + 3 + listingString.length);
    checkString(myString.indexOf("<" + listingString + ">", 0));
Any suggestions on how I can fix it or optimise the code? I’m thinking of trying to split the string into multiple chunks and deal with one chunk at a time, but this seems like a clumsy workaround.
You may have guessed from the code that the source file I’m working with is XML, though because I don’t have much experience with XML and it seemed like much more work than what I’ve done here I went with this approach. I also thought this may be more flexible. Might working with it as true XML make a difference with the memory issue (if that’s what it is)?
I’m working in CS4 in Windows, but had the same problem in CS5 on a Mac that I tried.
I’d appreciate any help.

Answer 1

This is the reason:
function checkString {
if (..)
checkString
checkString
-- in each call, it calls itself at least once -- and possible twice.
Try using the native XML object wrapper instead! See http://jongware.mit.edu/idcs6js/pc_XML.html for the available functionality.
var sourceFile = new File(...);
    sourceFile.open();
    var myString = sourceFile.read();
    sourceFile.close();
myXml = new XML (myString);
// length is a *function* in XML!
alert (myXml.length());
This is sort of a chimeara, half Javascript, half XML, but it sounds like you can do all operations you want through this interface.