Skip to content

Contractor fails with 'KeyError: key getindex not found' when function uses @variables x[1:n] #227

Description

@dpsanders

Setup

Using array-valued symbolics (@variables x[1:n]) with a function that indexes into the vector produces a KeyError from ReversePropagation when building a Contractor.

Minimal repro

using IntervalArithmetic, IntervalConstraintProgramming, Symbolics

f(x) = (x[1] - 1)^2 + (x[2] - 2)^2        # typical vector-argument style

@variables s[1:2]
sv = collect(s)
expr = f(sv)
C = Contractor(expr, sv)    # ❌ ERROR

Error

ERROR: KeyError: key getindex not found
Stacktrace:
 [1] getindex(h::Dict{Any, Any}, key::Any) @ ./dict.jl:477
 [2] rev(f_val::Function, z::Num, x::Num, y::Num)
   @ ReversePropagation ~/.../ReversePropagation/src/reverse_icp.jl:76
 [3] rev(eq::SymbolicUtils.Code.Assignment, params::Vector{Any})
   @ ReversePropagation ~/.../ReversePropagation/src/reverse_icp.jl:39
 [...]
 [17] Contractor(ex::Num, vars::Vector{Num}) @ IntervalConstraintProgramming/src/contractor.jl:10

Workaround

Define the variables as scalars and pass them explicitly, so no getindex nodes appear in the traced expression:

@variables s1 s2
sv = [s1, s2]
expr = f(sv)     # Julia indexing on a Vector{Num} — no Symbolics getindex node
C = Contractor(expr, sv)   #

Suggestion

The friendly API is @variables s[1:n], so it would be nice if the Contractor either (a) supported getindex in the reverse-propagation dictionary, or (b) produced a clearer error message suggesting the scalar-variable workaround.

This is especially awkward for higher-dim problems (e.g. Lennard-Jones clusters with 6–9 variables) where enumerating scalar variables is verbose.

Environment

  • IntervalConstraintProgramming v0.15.0
  • ReversePropagation v0.4.2
  • IntervalArithmetic v1.0.6
  • Symbolics v6.58.0
  • Julia 1.12.5

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    No labels
    No labels

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions