Default values, rules or code may be running in an Infinite loop - InfoPath 2010

Question

I am using InfoPath 2010. In the browser enabled form, i have a repeating table and have some rules set.

When the number of rows inserted is more than 13, i am getting the below error:

"Default values, rules or code may be running in an Infinite loop. To prevent this, ensure that the default value, rule action or event handler does not update the data which causes the same rule action or event handler to execute".

In the 14 root log, i am getting the below: 03/07/2012 12:50:52.15 w3wp.exe (0x277C) 0x2C98 InfoPath Forms Services Runtime - Business Logic 82lj Critical Calculations exceeded the maximum stack depth.

Further analysis on the form:

I have a column, which has the default value set like this: count(preceding-sibling::*) + 1

This column is causing the issue. I removed the calculation on the column and the form loaded properly. However, this calculation is required. The column is used to find the right row index before setting a value from a lookup to the appropriate row.

How to change this calculation?

How to fix this error?

Thank you

Answer 1

Comment to answer:

There's a classic book on developing InfoPath Forms. There's a table in there for planning and troubleshooting exceptions. The hard limit for calculation stack depth is 30.

Never heard about 30 only about 16, there were hundreds posts on it:

• InfoPath is hard coded to only execute 16 rules before throwing the "Infinite Loop" error
• There is a maximum number of chained operations that can be fired by one event, I believe it is 16
• 16 is the maximum number of times that a field can cause its own value to change, either directly or indirectly, and that can't be changed. But generally you shouldn't use recursive logic in your form anyway
• etc.

Answer 2

There's a classic book on developing InfoPath Forms. There's a table in there for planning and troubleshooting exceptions. The hard limit for calculation stack depth is 30.

However, there are multiple entries on the web proving that the effective limitation is 16 rules run in one unattended iteration.

The problem here seems to be that your form tries to calculate more than 16 row identifiers at once like when you load a long list from an external datasource and try to autonumber all of them at once.

Try to make the form user interaction logic stepwise, then it should work properly.