Skip to content

Fix quick_select crashing on non-positive rank in median_of_medians.py - #15544

Open
Saadanjum0 wants to merge 1 commit into
TheAlgorithms:masterfrom
Saadanjum0:fix/median-of-medians-quick-select-invalid-rank
Open

Saadanjum0 wants to merge 1 commit into
TheAlgorithms:masterfrom
Saadanjum0:fix/median-of-medians-quick-select-invalid-rank

Conversation

@Saadanjum0

Copy link
Copy Markdown

Describe your change

  • Add an algorithm?
  • Fix a bug or typo in an existing algorithm?
  • Add or change doctests? -- Note: Please avoid changing both code and tests in a single pull request.
  • Documentation change?

quick_select in searches/median_of_medians.py only guarded against
target > len(arr). A rank of 0 or a negative rank slipped past that
check and was passed into median_of_medians() on a shrinking slice of
arr until it indexed an empty list, raising an unhandled IndexError
instead of returning -1 the way other invalid input already does.

Fixed by rejecting target <= 0 alongside the existing upper-bound
check, and added two doctests (target = 0, target = -1) that
reproduce the crash before the fix and pass after it.

Checklist

  • I have read CONTRIBUTING.md.
  • This pull request is all my own work -- I have not plagiarized.
  • I know that pull requests will not be merged if they fail the automated tests.
  • This PR only changes one algorithm file. To ease review, please open separate PRs for separate algorithms.
  • All new Python files are placed inside an existing directory.
  • All filenames are in all lowercase characters with no spaces or dashes.
  • All functions and variable names follow Python naming conventions.
  • All function parameters and return values are annotated with Python type hints.
  • All functions have doctests that pass the automated testing.
  • All new algorithms include at least one URL that points to Wikipedia or another similar explanation.
  • If this pull request resolves one or more open issues, then the description above includes the issue number(s) with a closing keyword: "Fixes #ISSUE-NUMBER".

quick_select only rejected target > len(arr), so a rank of 0 or
negative fell through to median_of_medians() on a progressively
smaller list until it indexed an empty list, raising IndexError
instead of returning -1 like other invalid input.

Added doctests covering target = 0 and target = -1.
@algorithms-keeper algorithms-keeper Bot added awaiting reviews This PR is ready to be reviewed enhancement This PR modified some existing files labels Oct 9, 2026

This branch has not been deployed

No deployments
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

awaiting reviews This PR is ready to be reviewed enhancement This PR modified some existing files

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

1 participant