rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-clippy

Suggestion from needless_range_loop removes too many array index operations

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C-bug I-suggestion-causes-error
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

Summary

Clippy's suggestion for a needles_range_loop lint where the loop body indexes doubly-nested Vecs removes both sets of square brackets, instead of only the last one.

Reproducer

Playground link: https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=beta&mode=debug&edition=2024&gist=7b400efc4213e580381fa0fccf93459a

I tried this code:

use std::iter::repeat_n;

fn main() {
    let mut wire_polys = repeat_n(vec!['x'; 7], 10).collect::<Vec<_>>();
    let mut inp = repeat_n(String::new(), 10).collect::<Vec<_>>();
    for i in 0..10 {
        for j in 0..7 {
            wire_polys[i][j] = 'y';
        }
        inp[i] = format!("{i} {:?}", wire_polys[i]);
    }
}

This is minimized from https://github.com/divviup/libprio-rs/blob/574c75ecda60323e087f29e221862b1713459d6c/src/flp/gadgets.rs#L563-L568

I got the following suggestion:

warning: the loop variable `j` is only used to index `wire_polys`
 --> src/main.rs:7:18
  |
7 |         for j in 0..7 {
  |                  ^^^^
  |
  = help: for further information visit https://rust-lang.github.io/rust-clippy/beta/index.html#needless_range_loop
  = note: `#[warn(clippy::needless_range_loop)]` on by default
help: consider using an iterator
  |
7 -         for j in 0..7 {
7 +         for <item> in wire_polys.iter_mut().take(7) {
  |

The for loop should instead iterate over wire_polys[i].iter_mut().take(7).

Version
rustc 1.91.0 (f8297e351 2025-10-28)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: f8297e351a40c1439a467bbbb6879088047f50b3
commit-date: 2025-10-28
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
release: 1.91.0
LLVM version: 21.1.2
Additional Labels

@rustbot label +I-suggestion-causes-error

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the needless_range_loop lint and reproduce the nested-Vec case using the linked Playground example. Compare the emitted suggestion with the requested wire_polys[i].iter_mut().take(7) form, then add coverage for the nested indexing case and verify that the suggestion no longer removes both index operations.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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