`SplitODEProblem` and `VectorOfArray` of `Vector{SVector}` causes error during `solve`

[jlchan]

Describe the bug 🐞

The specific combination of

1. SplitODEProblem and
2. VectorOfArray of Vector{SVector}

causes solve to fail.

Expected behavior

For solve to run to completion.

Minimal Reproducible Example 👇

Without MRE, we would only be able to help you to a limited extent, and attention to the issue would be limited. to know more about MRE refer to wikipedia and stackoverflow.

using OrdinaryDiffEqTsit5
using RecursiveArrayTools, StaticArrays

rhs1(du, u, p, t) = du .= u
rhs2(du, u, p, t) = du .= u
f = SplitFunction(rhs1, rhs2)

u0 = VectorOfArray([SVector(0.0)])
tspan = (0.0, 1.0)
p = (; ucopy = similar(u0))

ode = SplitODEProblem(rhs1, rhs2, u0, tspan; p)
sol = solve(ode, Tsit5())

Error & Stacktrace ⚠️

ERROR: MethodError: no method matching (SplitFunction{…})(::ODEFunction{…}, ::ODEFunction{…}; mass_matrix::UniformScaling{…}, analytic::Nothing, tgrad::Nothing, jac::Nothing, jvp::Nothing, vjp::Nothing, jac_prototype::Nothing, W_prototype::Nothing, sparsity::Nothing, Wfact::Nothing, Wfact_t::Nothing, paramjac::Nothing, observed::typeof(SciMLBase.DEFAULT_OBSERVED), colorvec::Nothing, sys::Nothing, initialization_data::Nothing, nlprob_data::Nothing, _func_cache::VectorOfArray{…}, cache::VectorOfArray{…})

Closest candidates are:
  (SplitFunction{iip, specialize})(::Any, ::Any; mass_matrix, _func_cache, analytic, tgrad, jac, jvp, vjp, jac_prototype, W_prototype, sparsity, Wfact, Wfact_t, paramjac, syms, indepsym, paramsyms, observed, colorvec, sys, initializeprob, update_initializeprob!, initializeprobmap, initializeprobpmap, nlprob_data, initialization_data) where {iip, specialize} got unsupported keyword argument "cache"
   @ SciMLBase ~/.julia/packages/SciMLBase/tWwhl/src/scimlfunctions.jl:2838

Stacktrace:
 [1] kwerr(::@NamedTuple{…}, ::Type, ::Function, ::Function)
   @ Base ./error.jl:165
 [2] remake(func::SplitFunction{…}; f::Missing, g::Missing, f2::Missing, kwargs::@Kwargs{…})
   @ SciMLBase ~/.julia/packages/SciMLBase/tWwhl/src/remake.jl:198
 [3] promote_f(f::SplitFunction{…}, ::Val{…}, u0::VectorOfArray{…}, p::SciMLBase.NullParameters, t::Float64)
   @ DiffEqBase ~/.julia/packages/DiffEqBase/R2Vjs/src/solve.jl:1313
 [4] get_concrete_problem(prob::ODEProblem{…}, isadapt::Bool; kwargs::@Kwargs{…})
   @ DiffEqBase ~/.julia/packages/DiffEqBase/R2Vjs/src/solve.jl:1215
 [5] solve_up(prob::ODEProblem{…}, sensealg::Nothing, u0::VectorOfArray{…}, p::SciMLBase.NullParameters, args::Tsit5{…}; kwargs::@Kwargs{})
   @ DiffEqBase ~/.julia/packages/DiffEqBase/R2Vjs/src/solve.jl:1116
 [6] solve_up(prob::ODEProblem{…}, sensealg::Nothing, u0::VectorOfArray{…}, p::SciMLBase.NullParameters, args::Tsit5{…})
   @ DiffEqBase ~/.julia/packages/DiffEqBase/R2Vjs/src/solve.jl:1101
 [7] solve(prob::ODEProblem{…}, args::Tsit5{…}; sensealg::Nothing, u0::Nothing, p::Nothing, wrap::Val{…}, kwargs::@Kwargs{})
   @ DiffEqBase ~/.julia/packages/DiffEqBase/R2Vjs/src/solve.jl:1038
 [8] solve(prob::ODEProblem{…}, args::Tsit5{…})
   @ DiffEqBase ~/.julia/packages/DiffEqBase/R2Vjs/src/solve.jl:1028
 [9] top-level scope
   @ Untitled-1:13
Some type information was truncated. Use `show(err)` to see complete types.

Environment (please complete the following information):

• Output of using Pkg; Pkg.status()

Status `~/Downloads/tmp/Project.toml`
  [b1df2697] OrdinaryDiffEqTsit5 v1.1.0
  [731186ca] RecursiveArrayTools v3.28.0
  [90137ffa] StaticArrays v1.9.11

• Output of using Pkg; Pkg.status(; mode = PKGMODE_MANIFEST)

Status `~/Downloads/tmp/Manifest.toml`
  [47edcb42] ADTypes v1.12.1
  [7d9f7c33] Accessors v0.1.41
  [79e6a3ab] Adapt v4.1.1
  [4fba245c] ArrayInterface v7.18.0
  [62783981] BitTwiddlingConvenienceFunctions v0.1.6
  [2a0fbf3d] CPUSummary v0.2.6
  [fb6a15b2] CloseOpenIntervals v0.1.13
  [38540f10] CommonSolve v0.2.4
  [bbf7d656] CommonSubexpressions v0.3.1
  [f70d9fcc] CommonWorldInvalidations v1.0.0
  [34da2185] Compat v4.16.0
  [a33af91c] CompositionsBase v0.1.2
  [2569d6c7] ConcreteStructs v0.2.3
  [187b0558] ConstructionBase v1.5.8
  [adafc99b] CpuId v0.3.1
  [9a962f9c] DataAPI v1.16.0
  [864edb3b] DataStructures v0.18.20
  [e2d170a0] DataValueInterfaces v1.0.0
  [2b5f629d] DiffEqBase v6.161.0
  [163ba53b] DiffResults v1.1.0
  [b552c78f] DiffRules v1.15.1
  [ffbed154] DocStringExtensions v0.9.3
  [4e289a0a] EnumX v1.0.4
  [f151be2c] EnzymeCore v0.8.8
  [e2ba6199] ExprTools v0.1.10
⌅ [6b7a57c9] Expronicon v0.8.5
  [7034ab61] FastBroadcast v0.3.5
  [9aa1b823] FastClosures v0.3.2
  [a4df4552] FastPower v1.1.1
  [1a297f60] FillArrays v1.13.0
  [f6369f11] ForwardDiff v0.10.38
  [069b7b12] FunctionWrappers v1.1.3
  [77dc65aa] FunctionWrappersWrappers v0.1.3
  [46192b85] GPUArraysCore v0.2.0
  [615f187c] IfElse v0.1.1
  [3587e190] InverseFunctions v0.1.17
  [92d709cd] IrrationalConstants v0.2.4
  [82899510] IteratorInterfaceExtensions v1.0.0
  [692b3bcd] JLLWrappers v1.7.0
  [10f19ff3] LayoutPointers v0.1.17
  [2ab3a3ac] LogExpFunctions v0.3.29
  [d8e11817] MLStyle v0.4.17
  [1914dd2f] MacroTools v0.5.15
  [d125e4d3] ManualMemory v0.1.8
  [46d2c3a1] MuladdMacro v0.2.4
  [77ba4419] NaNMath v1.1.2
  [bac558e1] OrderedCollections v1.8.0
  [bbf590c4] OrdinaryDiffEqCore v1.15.1
  [b1df2697] OrdinaryDiffEqTsit5 v1.1.0
  [d96e819e] Parameters v0.12.3
  [f517fe37] Polyester v0.7.16
  [1d0040c9] PolyesterWeave v0.2.2
  [d236fae5] PreallocationTools v0.4.24
  [aea7be01] PrecompileTools v1.2.1
  [21216c6a] Preferences v1.4.3
  [3cdcf5f2] RecipesBase v1.3.4
  [731186ca] RecursiveArrayTools v3.28.0
  [189a3867] Reexport v1.2.2
  [ae029012] Requires v1.3.0
  [7e49a35a] RuntimeGeneratedFunctions v0.5.13
  [94e857df] SIMDTypes v0.1.0
  [0bca4576] SciMLBase v2.72.1
  [c0aeaf25] SciMLOperators v0.3.12
  [53ae85a6] SciMLStructures v1.6.1
  [efcf1570] Setfield v1.1.1
  [ce78b400] SimpleUnPack v1.1.0
  [276daf66] SpecialFunctions v2.5.0
  [aedffcd0] Static v1.1.1
  [0d7ed370] StaticArrayInterface v1.8.0
  [90137ffa] StaticArrays v1.9.11
  [1e83bf80] StaticArraysCore v1.4.3
  [7792a7ef] StrideArraysCore v0.5.7
  [2efcf032] SymbolicIndexingInterface v0.3.37
  [3783bdb8] TableTraits v1.0.1
  [bd369af6] Tables v1.12.0
  [8290d209] ThreadingUtilities v0.5.2
  [781d530d] TruncatedStacktraces v1.4.0
  [3a884ed6] UnPack v1.0.2
  [efe28fd5] OpenSpecFun_jll v0.5.6+0
  [0dad84c5] ArgTools v1.1.1
  [56f22d72] Artifacts
  [2a0f44e3] Base64
  [ade2ca70] Dates
  [8ba89e20] Distributed
  [f43a241f] Downloads v1.6.0
  [7b1f6079] FileWatching
  [9fa8497b] Future
  [b77e0a4c] InteractiveUtils
  [b27032c2] LibCURL v0.6.4
  [76f85450] LibGit2
  [8f399da3] Libdl
  [37e2e46d] LinearAlgebra
  [56ddb016] Logging
  [d6f4376e] Markdown
  [ca575930] NetworkOptions v1.2.0
  [44cfe95a] Pkg v1.10.0
  [de0858da] Printf
  [3fa0cd96] REPL
  [9a3f8284] Random
  [ea8e919c] SHA v0.7.0
  [9e88b42a] Serialization
  [6462fe0b] Sockets
  [2f01184e] SparseArrays v1.10.0
  [10745b16] Statistics v1.10.0
  [fa267f1f] TOML v1.0.3
  [a4e569a6] Tar v1.10.0
  [cf7118a7] UUIDs
  [4ec0a83e] Unicode
  [e66e0078] CompilerSupportLibraries_jll v1.1.1+0
  [deac9b47] LibCURL_jll v8.4.0+0
  [e37daf67] LibGit2_jll v1.6.4+0
  [29816b5a] LibSSH2_jll v1.11.0+1
  [c8ffd9c3] MbedTLS_jll v2.28.2+1
  [14a3606d] MozillaCACerts_jll v2023.1.10
  [4536629a] OpenBLAS_jll v0.3.23+4
  [05823500] OpenLibm_jll v0.8.1+2
  [bea87d4a] SuiteSparse_jll v7.2.1+1
  [83775a58] Zlib_jll v1.2.13+1
  [8e850b90] libblastrampoline_jll v5.11.0+0
  [8e850ede] nghttp2_jll v1.52.0+1
  [3f19e933] p7zip_jll v17.4.0+2
Info Packages marked with ⌅ have new versions available but compatibility constraints restrict them from upgrading. To see why use `status --outdated -m`

• Output of versioninfo()

Julia Version 1.10.8
Commit 4c16ff44be8 (2025-01-22 10:06 UTC)
Build Info:
  Official https://julialang.org/ release
Platform Info:
  OS: macOS (arm64-apple-darwin24.0.0)
  CPU: 12 × Apple M2 Max
  WORD_SIZE: 64
  LIBM: libopenlibm
  LLVM: libLLVM-15.0.7 (ORCJIT, apple-m1)
Threads: 8 default, 0 interactive, 4 GC (on 8 virtual cores)
Environment:
  JULIA_EDITOR = code
  JULIA_NUM_THREADS = 8

Additional context

This bug appears to be related to an error in the specialization of DiffEqBase.promote_f in

DiffEqBase.jl/src/solve.jl

Lines 1312 to 1314 in 6e6e63b

	function promote_f(f::SplitFunction, ::Val{specialize}, u0, p, t) where {specialize}
	typeof(f.cache) === typeof(u0) && isinplace(f) ? f : remake(f, cache = zero(u0))
	end

The error in promote_f appears to be related to a call of remake with keyword argument cache, which doesn't seem to exist. This only gets triggered in this specific circumstance because ode.u0 and ode.f.cache end up being different types (since similar(SVector) returns back an MVector).

[jlchan]

The error in promote_f appears to be related to a call of remake with keyword argument cache, which doesn't seem to exist. This only gets triggered in this specific circumstance because ode.u0 and ode.f.cache end up being different types (since similar(SVector) returns back an MVector).

I guess this error could also be avoided by redefining the behavior of similar for VectorOfArray of AbstractArray{<:SVector}. Adding

import Base: similar
function Base.similar(vec::VectorOfArray{
        T, N, AT}) where {T, N, AT <: AbstractArray{<:SVector{M, T}} where {M}}
    return VectorOfArray(similar(Base.parent(vec)))
end

seems to fix things. If this seems reasonable I can make a PR for this in RecursiveArrayTools.jl.