How do you stop an infinite loop in Javascript?

Question

Let's say I accidentally wrote this:

 do { } while (true);

...and then ran it. Apart from killing your browser, is there a way to stop javascript execution (the equivalent of Ctrl+Break in basic, or Ctrl+C)?

Normally, after about 30 seconds your browser asks if you want to stop the long-running script, but this doesn't always happen (as I just found out)!

FYI: A simple loop such as this: for (i=1; i > 0; ++i); will cause my browser to crash (Firefox 3.5b4). I don't feel much like testing to see if it's any of my add-ons. Continuously restarting my browser isn't my idea of a fun Monday night.

Answer 1

Depends on the browser. Some let you click the "stop" button to stop javascript execution. Others don't.

I suggest the best way is to just kill the browser entirely.

Answer 2

At least with Chrome, you may be able to kill off the individual tab and not the whole application.

Randolpho has also informed me that IE8 has similar functionality.

Answer 3

Most browsers have a "slow script performance" warning that comes up when an out of control javascript is taking a very long time to execute. This warning dialog usually gives the option to kill the offending script.

Answer 4

most decent browsers do show an "unresponsive script" warning... If not, I guess your best course of action would be to find out why the warning is not popping up.