FIX: Very Large Numbers of Predicates AND-ed Together May Cause Stack Overflow (224581)

SYMPTOMS

A query that contains a large number of predicates that are AND-ed together may cause a stack overflow exception. Several thousand conditions are typically required for this problem to occur, and you may reach a limit on the maximum batch size of your query tool before encountering this situation. Many query tools limit batches to 128 KB, whereas SQL Server 7.0 now accepts a batch size as large as (65536 * network packet size).

CAUSE

During optimization, memory for selectivity calculation was being allocated from the stack. This allocation depends on the number of nodes being AND-ed together and can result in a stack overflow.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server 7.0. This problem has been corrected in U.S. Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

232570INF: How to Obtain Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) 1.0

For more information, contact your primary support provider.

MORE INFORMATION

The SQL Server error log will contain an entry similar to the following when the exception occurs:

1999-04-01 16:22:13.78 spid7    04/01/99 16:22:13 Stack Overflow Dump not possible - Exception c00000fd E at 780348a4
1999-04-01 16:22:13.78 spid7    Address=780348a4 Exception Code = c00000fd
1999-04-01 16:22:13.78 spid7    eax=00000008 ebx=000d6558 ecx=00000008 edx=7804093a
1999-04-01 16:22:13.78 spid7    esi=00000001 edi=00000000 eip=780348a4 esp=02f82f38
1999-04-01 16:22:13.78 spid7    ebp=02f83208 efl=00010203
1999-04-01 16:22:13.78 spid7    cs=1b ss=23 ds=23 es=23 fs=3b gs=0
1999-04-01 16:22:13.78 spid7    Input Buffer 393228 bytes -
...<query text>...
1999-04-01 16:22:31.64 spid7    Error: 0, Severity: 19, State: 0
1999-04-01 16:22:31.64 spid7    language_exec: Process 7 generated an access violation. SQL Server is terminating this process.