pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · Error

Can't fill a sorted list.

Error message

Can't fill a sorted list.

What it means

SortedList.fill throws because overwriting arbitrary positions with a single value (Array.prototype.fill semantics) would violate the list's sorted-order invariant. The method is intentionally implemented as unsupported on sorted lists.

Solutions

1. Pre-populate a plain array then construct the SortedList from it
2. Use add/addN to insert values so they are placed in sorted order
3. Convert to a plain array with toArray() before filling

Example fix

// before
sortedList.fill(0, 0, 5); // throws
// after
var arr = new Array(5).fill(0);
var sl = new SortedList(arr);

if (list.isSorted) {
  throw new TypeError('fill is unsupported on SortedList');
}

try {
  list.fill(v, 0, n);
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).indexOf('fill a sorted list') >= 0) {
    var arr = list.toArray(); arr.fill(v, 0, n); list.clear(); list.addN(arr);
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any call to sortedList.fill(value, start, end), directly or through array-generic helper functions.

Common situations: Array-generic utilities applied to a sorted list; initializing slots with a default value using code written for plain Lists/arrays.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

• Can't copy within a sorted list.
• Can't do a indexed insert in a sorted list.
• Can't do a indexed replace in a sorted list.
• Can't reverse a sorted list.
• Append file in repository is not possible

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f5cb34fa97aba70e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/core-ui/src/main/resources/app/pentaho/lang/SortedList.js:171

          left = i + 1;
        } else if(comparison > 0) {
          right = i - 1;
        } else {
          return i;
        }
      }

      // two's complement operation being used to
      // return (x+1)*-1 in a hackish way
      return ~left;
    },

    copyWithin: function() {
      throw new Error("Can't copy within a sorted list.");
    },

    fill: function() {
      throw new Error("Can't fill a sorted list.");
    },

    reverse: function() {
      throw new Error("Can't reverse a sorted list.");
    },

    unshift: function() {
      throw new Error("Can't do a indexed insert in a sorted list.");
    },

    insert: function() {
      throw new Error("Can't do a indexed insert in a sorted list.");
    },

    replace: function() {
      throw new Error("Can't do a indexed replace in a sorted list.");
    },

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