c# - Build error: "An expression is too long or complex to compile"

Question

Every now and then when I build a specific solution, I'll get a random amount of "An expression is too long or complex to compile" in the Error List window. However, the only item the error points to is the specific project, not a file within the project or a specific LOC.

When I encounter this, I 'Clean' and then I restart VS and that seems to fix it. Any ideas on what is causing this?

This particular solution has 50 projects in it.

Answer 1

FYI, that error is characteristic of the compiler running out of stack space. Typically that happens when you throw a "deep recursion" problem at the compiler, like say,

int x = (1 + (1 + (1 + (1 + ......... + 1 ) + 1 ) + 1 ) + 1);

say, several thousand deep. The syntactic and semantic analyzers are both recursive-descent analyzers and therefore prone to running out of stack space in extreme scenarios.

I have no idea why shutting down and starting over would affect that, though. That is really strange.

If you get a solid repro, I'd love to see it. Either post it here, or enter a bug on Connect and we'll have a look at it. Without a solid repro though it is very hard to say what is going on here.