Exception in thread "main" StackoverFlow error

Question

I am writing a program that verifies if a password meets the appropriate requirements. I have all of my code written, and I feel it should work, but I get the following error:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StackOverflowError
at java.lang.String.length(String.java:623)
at PasswordVerifier.isValid(PasswordVerifier.java:5)
at PasswordVerifier.isValid(PasswordVerifier.java:6)

and then it repeats the last line of the error for quite some time. I've been looking around and cannot seem to figure out my issue. I know something is continually looping that I don't want to, but the fix eludes me. Here is my code

 public class PasswordVerifier{
  private static int MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH = 6;

  public static boolean isValid(String str){
     if (str.length() >= MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH){
        if (PasswordVerifier.isValid(str) == true){
           if (PasswordVerifier.hasUpperCase(str) == true){
              if (PasswordVerifier.hasLowerCase(str) == true){
                 if (PasswordVerifier.hasDigit(str) == true){
                    return true;
                 }
              }
           }
        }
     }
        return false;
  }

  private static boolean hasUpperCase(String str){
     for (char c : str.toCharArray()){
        if (Character.isUpperCase(c)){
           return true;
        }
     }
     return false;
  }

  private static boolean hasLowerCase(String str){
     for (char c : str.toCharArray()){
        if (Character.isLowerCase(c)){
           return true;
        }
     }
     return false;
  }

  private static boolean hasDigit(String str){
     for (char c : str.toCharArray()){
        if (Character.isDigit(c)){
           return true;
        }
     }
     return false;
  }
 }

Any help would be appreciated!

You can put all those nested ifs in one using &&. Better yet make it return the boolean expression. — A--C
– A--C, Commented Jan 25, 2013 at 22:20

Cat · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-25 22:20:15Z

7

public static boolean isValid(String str){
    // ...
        if (PasswordVerifier.isValid(str) == true){
        // ...
        }
    // ...
}

You're calling isValid(String) from within itself, which is causing the infinite ~~loop~~ recursion.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say this is what you want instead:

public static boolean isValid(String str){
    if (str.length() >= MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH){
        // Removed call to .isValid(String)
        if (PasswordVerifier.hasUpperCase(str)){
            if (PasswordVerifier.hasLowerCase(str)){
                if (PasswordVerifier.hasDigit(str)){
                    return true;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return false;
}

answered Jan 25, 2013 at 22:20

Cat

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1 Comment

SJuan76 Over a year ago

More of infinite recursion than infinite loop. +1 anyway

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