Testing for a float NaN results in a stack overflow

Question

C#, VS 2010

I need to determine if a float value is NaN.

Testing a float for NaN using

float.IsNaN(aFloatNumber) 

crashes

Answer 1

The solution:

First of all, thank you to @Matt for pointing me in the right direction, and @Hans Passant for providing the workaround.

The application talks to a CAN-USB adapter from Chinese manufacturer QM_CAN.

The problem is in their driver.

The DLL statements and Driver import:

   // DLL Statement
    IntPtr QM_DLL;
    TYPE_Init_can Init_can;
    TYPE_Quit_can Quit_can;
    TYPE_Can_send Can_send;
    TYPE_Can_receive Can_receive;
    delegate int TYPE_Init_can(byte com_NUM, byte Model, int CanBaudRate, byte SET_ID_TYPE, byte FILTER_MODE, byte[] RXF, byte[] RXM);
    delegate int TYPE_Quit_can();
    delegate int TYPE_Can_send(byte[] IDbuff, byte[] Databuff, byte FreamType, byte Bytes);
    delegate int TYPE_Can_receive(byte[] IDbuff, byte[] Databuff, byte[] FreamType, byte[] Bytes);

    // Driver
    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr LoadLibrary(string lpFileName);
    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr GetProcAddress(IntPtr hModule, string lpProcName);

The call to the offending code, including Hans' workaround:

   private void InitCanUsbDLL() // Initiate the driver for the CAN-USB dongle
    {

        // Here is an example of dynamically loaded DLL functions
        QM_DLL = LoadLibrary("QM_USB.dll");
        if (QM_DLL != IntPtr.Zero)
        {
            IntPtr P_Init_can = GetProcAddress(QM_DLL, "Init_can");
            IntPtr P_Quit_can = GetProcAddress(QM_DLL, "Quit_can");
            IntPtr P_Can_send = GetProcAddress(QM_DLL, "Can_send");
            IntPtr P_Can_receive = GetProcAddress(QM_DLL, "Can_receive");
            // The next line results in a FPU stack overflow if float.NaN is called by a handler
            Init_can = (TYPE_Init_can)Marshal.GetDelegateForFunctionPointer(P_Init_can, typeof(TYPE_Init_can));
            // Reset the FPU, otherwise we get a stack overflow when we work with float.NaN within a event handler
            // Thanks to Matt for pointing me in the right direction and to Hans Passant for this workaround:
            // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25205112/testing-for-a-float-nan-results-in-a-stack-overflow/25206025
            try { throw new Exception("Please ignore, resetting FPU"); }
            catch { } 
            Quit_can = (TYPE_Quit_can)Marshal.GetDelegateForFunctionPointer(P_Quit_can, typeof(TYPE_Quit_can));
            Can_send = (TYPE_Can_send)Marshal.GetDelegateForFunctionPointer(P_Can_send, typeof(TYPE_Can_send));
            Can_receive = (TYPE_Can_receive)Marshal.GetDelegateForFunctionPointer(P_Can_receive, typeof(TYPE_Can_receive));
        }
    }

The reason that the application crashed when a reference was made to float.NaN in the event handler and not in the constructor was a simple matter of timing: the constructor is called before InitCanUsbDLL(), but the event handler was called long after InitCanUsbDLL() corrupted the FPU registers.