Unconditional recursion (ARCH717)

Key dotnet.codequality.unconditional-recursion · Severity critical · Category codequality

Flags a method that calls itself, or a property getter that reads itself, on every path: nothing before the call can return, throw or branch away, so the recursion never ends and the process dies with a stack overflow.

Recursion is normal code when it has a way out. A call inside an if, a loop, a switch, a try or a lambda, or behind ?:, &&, ||, ?? or ?., is not reported. Neither is a call to another overload or to base. A setter that assigns itself is Infinite recursion (CA2011).

Incorrect

public string Name => Name;

public int Sum(int n)
{
    var doubled = n * 2;
    return Sum(doubled);
}

Correct

private string _name = "";
public string Name => _name;

public int Sum(int n)
{
    if (n <= 0) return 0;
    return n + Sum(n - 1);
}