gohugoio/hugo · error

too many arguments

Error message

too many arguments

What it means

Thrown by strings.SliceString when more than two index arguments are passed. SliceString accepts at most a start and an end index; a third index or more is a usage error.

Solutions

1. Pass at most two indices: {{ strings.SliceString $s $start $end }}.
2. Use a single index to slice to the end: {{ strings.SliceString $s $start }}.
3. If you need a step, chain SliceString calls instead.

Example fix

// before
{{ strings.SliceString $s 0 5 10 }}
// after
{{ strings.SliceString $s 0 5 }}

{{ strings.SliceString $s $start $end }}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling {{ strings.SliceString $s 0 5 10 }} or any call with three or more indices.

Common situations: Copy-paste from a function that takes more args; misunderstanding that SliceString is a half-open two-index range; passing a slice of indices.

Related errors

• too few arguments
• end argument must be integer
• must not provide more arguments than Resource and hash…
• must provide a Resource and optionally an options map
• must provide a Resource object

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/89e289404fb55ce0. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at tpl/strings/strings.go:340

	}

	var argStart, argEnd int

	argNum := len(startEnd)

	if argNum > 0 {
		if argStart, err = cast.ToIntE(startEnd[0]); err != nil {
			return "", errors.New("start argument must be integer")
		}
	}
	if argNum > 1 {
		if argEnd, err = cast.ToIntE(startEnd[1]); err != nil {
			return "", errors.New("end argument must be integer")
		}
	}

	if argNum > 2 {
		return "", errors.New("too many arguments")
	}

	asRunes := []rune(aStr)

	if argNum > 0 && (argStart < 0 || argStart >= len(asRunes)) {
		return "", errors.New("slice bounds out of range")
	}

	if argNum == 2 {
		if argEnd < 0 || argEnd > len(asRunes) {
			return "", errors.New("slice bounds out of range")
		}
		return string(asRunes[argStart:argEnd]), nil
	} else if argNum == 1 {
		return string(asRunes[argStart:]), nil
	} else {
		return string(asRunes[:]), nil
	}

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