Question

I have two classes, Class A and Class B.

Class A has an ArrayList of objects Class B.

Each Class B object has an attribute that stores a Class A object.

So when I create a Class A object, it populates the ArrayList of objects Class B. Each object Class B creates an object Class A (same as the one that is being populated), which creates an ArrayList of objects Class B… and so on.

What should I do to avoid this infinite recursion?

Answer 1

This should fix infinite recursion: (Java assumed)

Class A {

  private ArrayList<B> list = new ArrayList<B>();
  A(){ 
    while(someCondition) {
      list.add(new B(this));
    }
  }
}

Class B {

  private A attribute;
  B(A inRef){ 
    attribute = inRef;
  }
}

Note that B‘s attribute field is not assigned using new but by passing in a reference to A. By not using new we do not create a new instance of the A class and avoid recursion.