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On Windows XP using Visual C++ with 2GB of RAM, how many functions would have to be on the stack at the same time to create a stackoverflow? (i.e. in recursive functions)
Is there a simple way I could calculate this for other similar situations?
There’s no way to know just from the compiler. Stack overflows happen because of overflowing the stack. The stack’s size grows depending on the arguments a function takes, local variables the function uses, and compiler optimizations. There are even some C99 functions I believe that will allocate space directly from the stack.
The limit of the stack’s size is determined by a compiler switch, not how much RAM you have in your computer. So how many calls it takes to overflow has more to do with compiler settings than your memory.
It’s not something you can determine a priori. At least, not trivially.