Question

I have a JavaScript function that contains a for loop that iterates so many times.
After calling this function, the IE browser displays this message:

Stop running this script?
A script on this page is causing your web browser to run slowly.
If it continues to run, your computer might become unresponsive.

How can I fix this?
is there anyway I can disable this message from IE?

Answer 1

This message displays when Internet Explorer reaches the maximum number of synchronous instructions for a piece of JavaScript. The default maximum is 5,000,000 instructions, you can increase this number on a single machine by editing the registry.

Internet Explorer now tracks the total number of executed script statements and resets the value each time that a new script execution is started, such as from a timeout or from an event handler, for the current page with the script engine. Internet Explorer displays a “long-running script” dialog box when that value is over a threshold amount.

The only way to solve the problem for all users that might be viewing your page is to break up the number of iterations your loop performs using timers, or refactor your code so that it doesn’t need to process as many instructions.

Breaking up a loop with timers is relatively straightforward:

var i=0;
(function () {
    for (; i < 6000000; i++) {
        /*
            Normal processing here
        */

        // Every 100,000 iterations, take a break
        if ( i > 0 && i % 100000 == 0) {
            // Manually increment `i` because we break
            i++;
            // Set a timer for the next iteration 
            window.setTimeout(arguments.callee);
            break;
        }
    }
})();