Google Docs Crashes On Seeing 'And. And. And. And. And.'

A bug in Google Docs is causing it to crash when a series of words are typed into a document opened with the online word processor. BleepingComputer reports: It's official -- Google Docs crashes at the sight of "And. And. And. And. And." when the "Show grammar suggestion" is turned on. A Google Docs user, Pat Needham brought up the issue on Google Docs Editors Help forum. [...] Another user, Sergii Dymchenko, said strings like "But. But. But. But. But." triggered the same response. Some also noticed putting any of the terms like "Also, Therefore, And, Anyway, But, Who, Why, Besides, However," in the same format achieved the outcome.

Once crashed, you may not be able to easily re-access the document as doing so would trigger the crash again. BleepingComputer was able to reproduce the issue last night and reached out to Google. Google told us it is aware of the bug and working on a fix. [...] Until Google has an answer as to what causes this problem, it might be wise to turn off grammar suggestions by navigating to Tools, Spelling and grammar and unticking 'Show grammar suggestions.' If the bug has already been triggered and you're locked out of the Google Doc in question, there might be a workaround. Use the Google Docs mobile app to access the document, remove the offending words and the file should now open up gracefully on your Google Docs web version too.

Repeating string crash eh?

[SuperKendall]

Must have discovered the issue trying to load the screenplay for Ferris Bueller's Day Off into Google Docs.

Re: Repeating string crash eh?

[nehal3m]

âoeWhereâ(TM)s your brain?â â" Ferris Bueller

Re:

[Aighearach]

blah blah blah [piss] [vinegar]

Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp.
Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp.
Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp. Derp.
[to the tune of DoDoDo by AoA]

Re: Repeating string crash eh?

[GeorgeUnperson]

Or Super Troopers. Was the error code, âoeIâ(TM)m freakinâ(TM) out, manâ

Re: Repeating string crash eh?

[GeorgeUnperson]

Littering and. Littering and. Littering and.

Re:

[SuperKendall]

Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Regex

[michaelmalak]

Probably a bug in their regex that is causing an explosively branching search

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Until Google has an answer as to what causes this problem, it might be wise to turn off grammar suggestions

A long time ago, I learned to avoid any sort of automated grammar-related functions. No matter what editor/word processor you use, they are always extremely retarded.

Re:

[CODiNE]

Anyone have a reference to this problem? I wasn't able to find an example.

Re:

[Christophotron]

https://www.rexegg.com/regex-e... [rexegg.com]

Re:

[CODiNE]

Thanks for taking the time!

Re:

[michaelmalak]

https://www.regular-expressions.info/catastrophic.html [regular-expressions.info]

Re:

[CODiNE]

Thanks!

Re:

[BenBoy]

Ja, it's a problem waiting to happen in a lot of code. Sanitizing user input for sql is all the rage, but just about none of the code I see day to day has regex timeouts on user input. They're built-in to .net's regex library, but I even there don't see the feature used extensively.

Re:

[narcc]

That seems likely, though I doubt the problem is with regex. The summary makes clear, but you could probably guess, that this is a problem with their grammar checker. Not the bit that checks grammar, surprisingly, but with the bit that suggests alternative phrasing. Any (ab|mis)use of regex should be long over by that point.

Run on sentances.....

[codebase7]

Looks like a programmer at Google has never had to deal with a person that uses run on sentences.... My sympathies for their discovery.

That they will soon make and learn to hate as much as I do and fail to realize that I am always doing so and not caring about it even as they develop migraines and whoops I guess I crashed their browser my bad.

Re:

[fermion]

Or just did not do enough testing. Another piece of evidence that Google should only be used as a toy.

Re:

[quonset]

Or just did not do enough testing.

Testing? I don't think that word exists in a programmer's lexicon.

Re:

[Dutch Gun]

I think the software world would be a better place if more programmers took testing at least half as seriously as SQLite's author does.

https://www.sqlite.org/testing... [sqlite.org]

Re:

[dgatwood]

I think the software world would be a better place if more programmers took testing at least half as seriously as SQLite's author does.

https://www.sqlite.org/testing... [sqlite.org]

And yet I can't count the number of crashes I've seen that were caused by corrupted SQLite databases. No amount of testing can catch everything.

Re:

[gtall]

"That they will soon make and learn to hate as much as I do and fail to realize that I am always doing so and not caring about it even as they develop migraines and whoops I guess I crashed their browser my bad."

Put the bong DOWN well BEFORE posting.

Re: Run on sentances.....

[e3m4n]

See I told you Google was full of a bunch of intolerance. The mere exposure to stuttering causes their heads to explode. Practice what you preach google. Tolerance and Inclusiveness means everyone. Not just the types you like. Those with speech impediments are people too!

turn off grammar suggestions?

[fredrated]

Why? Is anybody actually going to enter those strings into their document? This is just a curiosity not a real problem.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, chances are pretty low that we're reading this story.

Re:

[mamba-mamba]

I am going to be entering the string into a lot of documents people have shared with me.

Re:

[JaredOfEuropa]

Indeed, the likelihood of this happening is minute. No ifs ands or buts... carrier lost

Re:

[Rufty]

You can have the word "and" repeated, but still valid. E.G. The owner of the "George and Dragon" pub told the signwriter: "I want a gold wavy line between 'George' and 'and' and 'and' and 'Dragon'." Or for a more American experience, try this [wikipedia.org].

Re:

[quonset]

Why? Is anybody actually going to enter those strings into their document? This is just a curiosity not a real problem.

I present to you, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo [wikipedia.org].

Re:

[WierdUncle]

This is just a curiosity not a real problem.

I think it is significant, because it illustrates that clever algorithms do not actually understand human language in the way that people understand language. I noticed this in a recent interaction with a so-called digital assistant at my bank. There was evidently some word and phrase recognition going on, because my typed in query got me at least in the right ball park, where I was guided to various menus of options, all of which turned out to be useless. Going beyond that was impossible. If I had been int

Star Trek episodes

[at10u8]

Once again proving the overused plot device where Captain Kirk talks a computer into self-destructing.

Re:

[Opyros]

Trivia: that plot device was borrowed from a 1951 short story by Gordon R. Dickson, The Monkey Wrench [wikipedia.org].

That's funny

[raind]

lol

But but but but... Make him stop!

[Joe_Dragon]

But but but but... Make him stop!

That

[Okian Warrior]

But but but but... Make him stop!

The teacher said that, "that that, that that student used, was incorrect".

Re:

[fox171171]

Is "My watch says quarter to two too!" safe?

Re:

[Harvey Manfrenjenson]

James, where John had had "had had", had had "had"; "had had" had had the teacher's approval.

Re:

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

A sentence can't end in a because because because is a conjunction.

So turn off grammar checking

[jaa101]

Once crashed, you may not be able to easily re-access the document as doing so would trigger the crash again. [...] turn off grammar suggestions by navigating to Tools, Spelling and grammar and unticking 'Show grammar suggestions.'

So it doesn't seem like rocket science to work around the bug and access your document. Or is "Show grammar suggestions" a per-document setting?

Re:

[WierdUncle]

Perhaps the trick is to learn to write English, or whatever language you were brought up with. In my experience, this is not that easy. I taught myself a clear writing style while studying engineering at university. At school, my English language learning effectively stopped dead when I specialised into science. I am not sure how things work now, because I don't have any connection with high school education. One thing I did learn, while I was writing essays about history and stuff, is that clarity of expre

Ok

[backslashdot]

And?

So would my 6th grade English teacher

[Seven Spirals]

She would also take you out and paddle you if you did it twice. This was 1980's Texas after all. :-)

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

Texas? You're lucky she didn't shoot you.

Testing one two three

[sjames]

Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

Re:

[narcc]

That should be: Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

You can take it a bit further, but it's harder to explain:
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Re:

[LordHighExecutioner]

What about Major Major Major Major [wikipedia.org]....

Buffalo sentance

[jcdick1]

So much for using Google Docs to write about Dmitri Borgmann and the Buffalo sentence. Even Slashdot's comment code won't allow quoting it.

But ... but .. but ...

[cascadingstylesheet]

... when would that ever come up???

Re:

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

There is a book - considered something of a classic - released 91 years ago which should be good at stress-testing Google's fix to this problem, The Waves by Virginia Woolf [gutenberg.net.au]. I had a look at it when I was at high school (equivalent) and could not believe what I was seeing.
With a book you can look at a random page in the middle, it got worse.

Can't replicate, ticket closed

[CastrTroy]

Maybe they fixed it already, but I tried to get it to crash using the described input. Checked to ensure that grammar suggestions was turned on. Checked that I'm in American English because I thought that might be the issue because i'm not in the US, but it still defaulted to US English. Also tried in UK English and there was no issue.

I guess this illustrates the advantages of an online web browser. With an offline one, it might take a while for fixes to get pushed out to all their users. Many people would

Well no problem

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

If it's really an issue and/or you desperately need to recover that file, you can always reinstall the previous version.

Oh wait, you can't - SaaS, cloud... You're at the mercy of Google's good will. Sucks to be you.

Grammar is hard

[nospam007]

We see that every day here.

People writing books without computers

[WierdUncle]

Before getting a home computer, I used to write loads of philosophy gubbins with pencil and paper. If I was a bit more certain about what I was thinking, I might use a pen. The thing is, the philosophers I like reading, such as Karl Popper, did not have a computer to help them write. Even if Karl Popper had a typewriter, there was no cut and paste. You either got it right first time or type it out again.

I rather enjoy reading the notebooks of Edsger Dijkstra, regarding computing science. He famously did not

Right...

[rantrantrant]

...I'm updating my signature.

Ha.Ha.Ha.Ha.Ha.

[groobly]

Just deserts for trying to be grammer than thou.

"And Then"

[nsaspook]

https://youtu.be/CkdyU_eUm1U [youtu.be]

Shatner!

[Stormthirst]

"Also, Therefore, And, Anyway, But, Who, Why, Besides, However,"

So William Shatner's speeches will crash Google Docs then?

At last!

[therealbev]

Finally -- REAL punishment for relying on software instead of your own brain!

Redrum

[Wolfrider]

" all work and no play makes jack a dull boy "
" all work and no play makes jack a dull boy "
" all work and no play makes jack a dull boy "