Unity-Technologies/UnityCsReference · error · ArgumentException

Invalid columnIndex: {0}. The index is not part of the curre

Error message

Invalid columnIndex: {0}. The index is not part of the current visible columns: {1}

What it means

Thrown by GetVisibleColumnIndex when the requested columnIndex is not present in state.visibleColumns. It only accepts columns currently marked visible; hidden columns have no visible-position mapping.

Source

Thrown at Editor/Mono/GUI/TreeView/MultiColumnHeader.cs:168

        public bool IsColumnVisible(int columnIndex)
        {
            foreach (int vc in state.visibleColumns)
            {
                if (vc == columnIndex)
                    return true;
            }
            return false;
        }

        public int GetVisibleColumnIndex(int columnIndex)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < state.visibleColumns.Length; i++)
            {
                if (state.visibleColumns[i] == columnIndex)
                    return i;
            }
            string visibleIndices = string.Join(", ", state.visibleColumns);
            throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("Invalid columnIndex: {0}. The index is not part of the current visible columns: {1}", columnIndex, visibleIndices), "columnIndex");
        }

        public Rect GetCellRect(int visibleColumnIndex, Rect rowRect)
        {
            Rect result = GetColumnRect(visibleColumnIndex);
            result.y = rowRect.y;
            result.height = rowRect.height;
            return result;
        }

        public Rect GetColumnRect(int visibleColumnIndex)
        {
            if (visibleColumnIndex < 0 || visibleColumnIndex >= m_ColumnRects.Length)
                throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("The provided visibleColumnIndex is invalid. Ensure the index ({0}) is within the number of visible columns ({1})", visibleColumnIndex, m_ColumnRects.Length), "visibleColumnIndex");

            return m_ColumnRects[visibleColumnIndex];
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 225b0fbdb5)

Solutions

1. Check IsColumnVisible(columnIndex) before calling GetVisibleColumnIndex.
2. Rebuild cached indices whenever visibleColumns changes.
3. Hide/show the column first if the operation requires it to be visible.

Example fix

// before
int vIdx = header.GetVisibleColumnIndex(colIdx);

// after
if (!header.IsColumnVisible(colIdx)) return -1;
int vIdx = header.GetVisibleColumnIndex(colIdx);

if (!header.IsColumnVisible(columnIndex)) return -1; return header.GetVisibleColumnIndex(columnIndex);

static bool IsVisibleColumn(int i, MultiColumnHeader h) => h.IsColumnVisible(i);

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a columnIndex for a column the user has hidden; querying a visible position for an always-hidden column.

Common situations: User toggled column visibility after an index was cached; a layout referencing a column that was removed from the visible set.

Related errors

• MultiColumnHeader state is not allowed to be null
• columnIndices
• sortAscending
• Input arrays should have same length
• The maximum number of sorted columns is {state.maximumNumber

AI-assisted analysis of Unity-Technologies/UnityCsReference@225b0fbdb5 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3e40c3aac08d67b7. Report an issue: GitHub.