[erlang-bugs] binary:part/3

[Michael Truog]

On 02/17/2013 02:59 AM, Kostis Sagonas wrote:
> On 02/16/2013 06:25 AM, Michael Truog wrote:
>> There is a problem with the binary:part type spec used by dialyzer (the function is a BIF), such that it thinks the Length is pos_integer() instead of integer().  A similar problem exists within the documentation here (with the Length type):
>> http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/binary.html#part-3
>
> First of all, the documentation you are pointing out specifies that the third argument is "Len = integer() >= 0" so Len should be declared as non_neg_integer(), not integer().
>
> Second, and more important, this has been corrected in R16A/R16B:
>
>   https://github.com/erlang/otp/blob/master/lib/stdlib/src/binary.erl#L186
>
> If you want a correction for a previous Erlang/OTP release, change the corresponding entry in file lib/hipe/cerl/erl_bif_types.erl
>
> Kostis
>
The documentation is wrong as you can see from the entry above:
http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/binary.html#part-2

The Len should be an integer() since negative Len values do work as mentioned within
PosLen = part() = {Start :: integer() >= 0, Length :: integer()}

binary:part/3 is just providing the same parameters without the tuple wrapper for PosLen.