Bug #20957: RangeError on Array#values_at with negative ranges

• Status: Open
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -
• ruby -v: ruby 3.4.0dev (2024-12-13T10:19:31Z master 3cb79d4082) +PRISM [arm64-darwin22]
• Backport: 3.1: UNKNOWN, 3.2: UNKNOWN, 3.3: UNKNOWN

[kyanagi (Kouhei Yanagita)]

[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(10)       #=> [nil]
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(10..10)   #=> [nil]
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-10)      #=> [nil]
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-10..-10) #=> 'Array#values_at': -10..-10 out of range (RangeError)

Is this the intended behavior?

I am aware that this behavior was recently added to the documentation, but I would like to confirm whether it is the intended behavior.

[johnnyshields (Johnny Shields)]

Here are more interesting cases:

# Reverse ranges don't return values
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(2..3) => [2, 3]
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(3..2) => []

# Positive values outside range return a nil for each index
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(3..10) => [3, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil]

# Negative ranges work so long as they are in ascending order and within the range
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-4..-2)  #=> [0, 1, 2]
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-5..-2)  #=> RangeError
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-2..-4)  #=> []
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-4..-10) #=> []
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-10..-4) #=> RangeError
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-5..-10) #=> RangeError

# Mix of negative and positive value does something sensible, so long as it doesn't create a "reverse range"
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-4..1) #=> [0, 1]
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-3..1) #=> [1]
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-2..1) #=> []
[0, 1, 2, 3].values_at(-2..5) #=> [2, 3, nil, nil]

I would favor adding support for reverse ranges, and possibly the nil, nil, nil behavior for out-of-bounds negative ranges, to be congruent.