AbstractArray doesn't capture the element type of a UnitRange

New to Julia
1

Hi,

I have a function that I want to work on ranges and Vectors.

I see UnitRange{Int64} and Arrays{Int64,1} type hierarchy intersect at AbstractArray{Int64,1}, so I wrote my function as:

function test(t::AbstractArray{T,1}) where T
     return T
end

julia> test([1:3])
UnitRange{Int64}

julia> test([1,2,3])
Int64

I was expecting to see Int64 as a result for both.
Any explanation?

2

In Julia, the 1:3 itself is a UnitRange.

When you put brackets around it, it means you’re putting the UnitRange into an array:

julia> A = [1:3]
1-element Array{UnitRange{Int64},1}:
 1:3

julia> [1:3,5:7]
2-element Array{UnitRange{Int64},1}:
 1:3
 5:7

Just do test(1:3) and you’ll find things to work as you expected.

Note that we print UnitRanges just like they’re entered, but they really are fully-functional array-like objects. You can see this by converting them to an Array or doing maths on them:

julia> r = 1:3
1:3

julia> size(r)
(3,)

julia> Array(r)
3-element Array{Int64,1}:
 1
 2
 3

julia> r .^ 2
3-element Array{Int64,1}:
 1
 4
 9
1 Like
3

This is indeed the issue. Thanks!