josdejong/mathjs

null/undefined treated as valid only for left side of comparison operators

Open

#1,391 opened on Jan 31, 2019

View on GitHub
 (11 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)JavaScript (1,298 forks)batch import
bughelp wanted

Repository metrics

Stars
 (13,832 stars)
PR merge metrics
 (No merged PRs in 30d)

Description

Using mathjs@5.4.1

When the null value is on the right side, the correct error is thrown (actual: null):

> require('mathjs').eval('1 > null')
TypeError: Unexpected type of argument in function larger (expected: number or Array or DenseMatrix or SparseMatrix or string or boolean or Matrix or BigNumber or Complex or Fraction, actual: null, index: 1)

However, when the null value is on the left side, the error mistakenly identifies the right side as the source of the problem (actual: number):

> require('mathjs').eval('null > 1')
TypeError: Unexpected type of argument in function larger (expected: Array or DenseMatrix or SparseMatrix or Matrix, actual: number, index: 1)

Contributor guide

Research direction
Inspect the type checking logic for comparison operators in the source code, specifically the larger function, to ensure null/undefined on the left side is handled correctly.
Tech stack
javascript
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
GitJavaScript
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70