jax-ml/jax · error · ValueError

invalid argument side={side!r}, expected 'left' or 'right'

Error message

invalid argument side={side!r}, expected 'left' or 'right'

What it means

Raised by the SearchSorted HiJAX primitive when the side argument is not exactly the string 'left' or 'right'. side controls whether ties return the first (left) or last (right) insertion index, mirroring numpy.searchsorted. Any other value, including capitalized or misspelled variants, is rejected at primitive construction.

Source

Thrown at jax/_src/numpy/hijax.py:84

      out_dtype: np.dtype):
    batch_dims = operator.index(batch_dims)
    if batch_dims < 0 or batch_dims >= sorted_arr_aval.ndim:
      raise ValueError(
          f"batch_dims={batch_dims} must be in range [0, {sorted_arr_aval.ndim})"
      )
    dimension = operator.index(dimension)
    if not batch_dims <= dimension < sorted_arr_aval.ndim:
      raise ValueError(
          f"dimension={dimension} must be in range [{batch_dims},"
          f" {sorted_arr_aval.ndim})"
      )
    if sorted_arr_aval.dtype != query_aval.dtype:
      raise ValueError(
          "dtypes of sorted_arr and query must match; got "
          f"{sorted_arr_aval.dtype} and {query_aval.dtype}"
      )
    if side not in ["left", "right"]:
      raise ValueError(
          f"invalid argument side={side!r}, expected 'left' or 'right'"
      )
    if method not in self.valid_methods:
      raise ValueError(
          f"invalid argument {method=}, expected one of {list(self.valid_methods)}"
      )
    if sorted_arr_aval.shape[:batch_dims] != query_aval.shape[:batch_dims]:
      raise ValueError(
          "batch dimension sizes must match; got"
          f" {sorted_arr_aval.shape[:batch_dims]} != {query_aval.shape[:batch_dims]}"
      )
    if not dtypes.issubdtype(out_dtype, np.integer):
      raise ValueError(f"out_dtype should be an integer type; got {out_dtype}")
    # Attempt this here to catch overflow errors early.
    out_dtype.type(sorted_arr_aval.shape[dimension])
    self.in_avals = (sorted_arr_aval, query_aval)
    self.out_aval = core.typeof(api.eval_shape(
      functools.partial(_searchsorted_impl,

View on GitHub (pinned to 1e1c6a8fc0)

Solutions

1. Use exactly side='left' or side='right'
2. If side comes from user input, normalize it: side.strip().lower()
3. Never pass an int/bool for side in this API

Example fix

# before
idx = jnp.searchsorted(a, v, side='Left')
# after
idx = jnp.searchsorted(a, v, side='left')

assert side in ('left', 'right'), side

def valid_side(s: str) -> bool:
    return isinstance(s, str) and s in ('left', 'right')

When it happens

Trigger: Passing side='Left', side='RIGHT', side=0/1, or a typo like side='rigth' to jax.numpy searchsorted.

Common situations: Porting code from an API that used booleans or integers for side; building side dynamically from user config with non-normalized casing.

Related errors

• invalid argument {method=}, expected one of {list(self.valid
• out_dtype should be an integer type; got {out_dtype}
• Unsupported method: {method}
• `compute_on`'s compute_type argument must be a string.
• Argument '{x}' of type '{typ}' is not a valid JAX type

AI-assisted analysis of jax-ml/jax@1e1c6a8fc0 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/96445bfc0230bf8b. Report an issue: GitHub.