Stackoverflow Exception in a simple dialog

Question

Hello i am getting an Stackoverflow Exception in this two dialog. Dialog A is being called from a main dialog class. Dialog A have a choice to go to Dialog A child and Dialog A child has a choice to go back to Dialog A. But it is getting a Stackoverflow Exception. When i remove one from the other: Example removing Dialog A child from Dialog A or removing Dialog A from Dialog A child, the exception error disappears. In short it throw a Stackoverflow Exception when both dialog can call each other.

I know i can just EndDialogAsync in this specific scenario to go back to Dialog A but my real dialog flow is not together like this . How to fix this?

Dialog A code:

 public class DialogA : ComponentDialog
{
    private const string InitialId = "dialogA";
    private const string ChoicePrompt = "choicePrompt";
    private const string DialogAchildId = "dialogA_childId";

    public DialogA(string dialogId)
        : base(dialogId)
    {
        InitialDialogId = InitialId;

        WaterfallStep[] waterfallSteps = new WaterfallStep[]
         {
            FirstStepAsync,
            SecondStepAsync,
            ThirdStepAsync,
         };
        AddDialog(new WaterfallDialog(InitialId, waterfallSteps));
        AddDialog(new ChoicePrompt(ChoicePrompt));
        AddDialog(new DialogA_child(DialogAchildId));

    }

    private static async Task<DialogTurnResult> FirstStepAsync(WaterfallStepContext stepContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
    {
        return await stepContext.PromptAsync(
            ChoicePrompt,
            new PromptOptions
            {
                Prompt = MessageFactory.Text($"Here are your choices:"),
                Choices = new List<Choice>{new Choice { Value = "Open Dialog A_Child", }, new Choice { Value = "Open Dialog B_Child" }, },
                RetryPrompt = MessageFactory.Text($"Please choose one of the options."),
            });
    }

    private static async Task<DialogTurnResult> SecondStepAsync(WaterfallStepContext stepContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
    {
        var response = (stepContext.Result as FoundChoice)?.Value.ToLower();

        if (response == "open dialog a_child")
        {
            return await stepContext.BeginDialogAsync(DialogAchildId, cancellationToken: cancellationToken);
        }

        return await stepContext.NextAsync();
    }

    private static async Task<DialogTurnResult> ThirdStepAsync(WaterfallStepContext stepContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
    {
        return await stepContext.EndDialogAsync();
    }

Dialog A child code:

 public class DialogA_child : ComponentDialog
{
  private const string InitialId = "dialogAchild";
    private const string ChoicePrompt = "choicePrompt";
    private const string DialogAId = "dialogAId";

    public DialogA_child(string dialogId)
        : base(dialogId)
    {
        InitialDialogId = InitialId;

        WaterfallStep[] waterfallSteps = new WaterfallStep[]
         {
            FirstStepAsync,
            SecondStepAsync,
         };
        AddDialog(new WaterfallDialog(InitialId, waterfallSteps));
        AddDialog(new DialogA(DialogAId));

    }

    private static async Task<DialogTurnResult> FirstStepAsync(WaterfallStepContext stepContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
    {
        return await stepContext.PromptAsync(
       ChoicePrompt,
       new PromptOptions
       {
           Prompt = MessageFactory.Text($"Here are your choices:"),
           Choices = new List<Choice> {new Choice { Value = "Open Dialog A" }, new Choice { Value = "Open Dialog B" }, },
           RetryPrompt = MessageFactory.Text($"Please choose one of the options."),
       });
    }

    private static async Task<DialogTurnResult> SecondStepAsync(WaterfallStepContext stepContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
    {
        var response = (stepContext.Result as FoundChoice)?.Value.ToLower();

        if (response == "open dialog a")
        {
            return await stepContext.BeginDialogAsync(DialogAId, cancellationToken: cancellationToken);
        }

        return await stepContext.NextAsync();
    }

Main code that called dialog A:

   public class MainDialog : ComponentDialog
{
    private const string InitialId = "mainDialog";
    private const string ChoicePrompt = "choicePrompt";
    private const string DialogAId = "dialogAId";

    public MainDialog(string dialogId)
        : base(dialogId)
    {
        InitialDialogId = InitialId;

        WaterfallStep[] waterfallSteps = new WaterfallStep[]
         {
            FirstStepAsync,
            SecondStepAsync,
            ThirdStepAsync,
         };
        AddDialog(new WaterfallDialog(InitialId, waterfallSteps));
        AddDialog(new ChoicePrompt(ChoicePrompt));
        AddDialog(new DialogA(DialogAId));
    }

    private static async Task<DialogTurnResult> FirstStepAsync(WaterfallStepContext stepContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
    {
        return await stepContext.PromptAsync(
            ChoicePrompt,
            new PromptOptions
            {
                Prompt = MessageFactory.Text($"Here are your choices:"),
                Choices = new List<Choice>{ new Choice { Value = "Open Dialog A" }, new Choice { Value = "Open Dialog B" }, },
                RetryPrompt = MessageFactory.Text($"Please choose one of the options."),
            });
    }

    private static async Task<DialogTurnResult> SecondStepAsync(WaterfallStepContext stepContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
    {
        var response = (stepContext.Result as FoundChoice)?.Value.ToLower();

        if (response == "open dialog a")
        {
            return await stepContext.BeginDialogAsync(DialogAId, cancellationToken: cancellationToken);
        }

        if (response == "open dialog b")
        {
        }

        return await stepContext.NextAsync();
    }

    private static async Task<DialogTurnResult> ThirdStepAsync(WaterfallStepContext stepContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
    {

        return await stepContext.EndDialogAsync();
    }

Answer 1

In Visual Studio you can check your call stack and you will know where is the exact problem in your StackOverflowException.

If DialogA is the base class of DialogA_child then in your DialogA_child's constructor and your base class constructor will be calling themselfs recursively.

So your call stack should look like this:

1. DialogA constructor add new DialogA_child
2. DialogA_child calls base(so DialogA constructor)
3. DialogA constructor add new DialogA_child
4. DialogA_child calls base(so DialogA constructor)
5. ...