java.lang.StackOverflowError due to recursion

Question

My problem is that I usually get a java.lang.StackOverflowError when I use recursion. My question is - why does recursion cause stackoverflow so much more than loops do, and

Answer 1

In most cases, a stack overflow occurs because a recursive method was ill-defined, with a non-existent or unreachable ending condition, which causes the stack memory space to be exhausted. A correctly written recursion should not produce a stack overflow.

However, there are situations where a method can produce a stack overflow even if it was correctly implemented. For instance:

• A fast-growing (say, exponential) recursion. For example: the naive recursive implementation of the Fibonacci function
• A very big input data, that will eventually cause the stack space to be exhausted

Bottom line: it all depends on the particular case, it's impossible to generalize regarding what causes a stack overflow.