Feature #8172
Updated by sawa (Tsuyoshi Sawada) over 4 years ago
=begin There are a few desctructive `Array` (({Array})) methods that take an index as an argument and silently insert `nil` (({nil})) if the index is out of range: ```ruby a = []; a[1] = :foo; a # => [nil, :foo] [].insert(1, :foo) # => [nil, :foo] [].fill(:foo, 1, 1) # => [nil, :foo] ``` Among them, `Array#[]` (({Array#[]})) has a counterpart that returns an `IndexError` (({IndexError})) when the index is out of range: ```ruby [].fetch(1) # => IndexError ``` and this is useful to avoid bugs that would be difficult to find if `Array#[]` (({Array#[]})) were used. However for `Array#insert` (({Array#insert})) and `Array#fill`, (({Array#fill})), there are no such counterparts, and that fact that these methods silently insert `nil` (({nil})) is often the cause of a bug that is difficult to find. I suggest there should be some versions of these methods that return `IndexError` (({IndexError})) when index is out of range: ```ruby [].insert!(1, :foo) # => IndexError [].fill!(:foo, 1, 1) # => IndexError ``` I believe this would make debugging easier. =end