# Iterate out of range

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/iterate-out-of-range/95360
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** literate, unitrange, ordinalrange
**Created:** [February 28, 2023, 10:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/iterate-out-of-range/95360 "2023-02-28T22:22:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![rocco\_sprmnt21](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rocco_sprmnt21/32/20127_2.png) [@rocco\_sprmnt21](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rocco_sprmnt21)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2023, 10:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/iterate-out-of-range/95360/1 "2023-02-28T22:22:18Z")

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Are these results expected?

```julia
julia> iterate(3:7, 9)
(10, 10)

julia> iterate(3:7, 9)
(10, 10)

julia> iterate(3:1:7, 9)
(10, 10)

julia> iterate('c':'l','n')
('o', 'o')

julia> iterate('c':'l',15)
('\x10', '\x10')

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jling](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jling/32/212909_2.png) [@jling](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jling)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2023, 10:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/iterate-out-of-range/95360/2 "2023-02-28T22:35:28Z")

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why would they ever be called like this?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![StefanKarpinski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stefankarpinski/32/24_2.png) [@StefanKarpinski](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StefanKarpinski)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/iterate-out-of-range/95360/3 "2023-02-28T22:45:41Z")

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Garbage in, garbage out. It’s not defined what `iterate` will do if you give it an invalid iteration state as input.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![rocco\_sprmnt21](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rocco_sprmnt21/32/20127_2.png) [@rocco\_sprmnt21](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rocco_sprmnt21)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2023, 10:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/iterate-out-of-range/95360/4 "2023-02-28T22:50:35Z")

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In other cases, the implementation of iterate checks the possible input of rubbish

```julia
julia> string(iterate("cdefghi",8))
"nothing"

julia> string(iterate([1,2,3],4))
"nothing"

```

I/you wondered if this permissiveness was not a harbinger of possible unwanted side effects