BUG: correctly return empty result for out-of-bounds skip_features for all file formats (#550)

Co-authored-by: Pieter Roggemans <pieter.roggemans@gmail.com>

Author: jorisvandenbossche

CHANGES.md

@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@
 
 -   Compatibility with Shapely >= 2.1 to avoid triggering a deprecation warning at
     import (#542).
-
+-   Fix reading with a `skip_features` larger than the available number of
+    features to ensure this consistently returns an empty result for all file
+    formats (#550).
 
 ## 0.11.0 (2025-05-08)
 

pyogrio/_io.pyx

@@ -771,6 +771,26 @@ cdef apply_geometry_filter(OGRLayerH ogr_layer, wkb):
     OGR_G_DestroyGeometry(ogr_geometry)
 
 
+cdef apply_skip_features(OGRLayerH ogr_layer, int skip_features):
+    """Applies skip_features to layer.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    ogr_layer : pointer to open OGR layer
+    wskip_features : int
+    """
+    err = OGR_L_SetNextByIndex(ogr_layer, skip_features)
+    # GDAL can raise an error (depending on the format) for out-of-bound index,
+    # but `validate_feature_range()` should ensure we only pass a valid number
+    if err != OGRERR_NONE:
+        try:
+            check_last_error()
+        except CPLE_BaseError as exc:
+            raise ValueError(str(exc))
+
+        raise ValueError(f"Applying {skip_features=} raised an error")
+
+
 cdef validate_feature_range(
     OGRLayerH ogr_layer, int skip_features=0, int max_features=0
 ):
@@ -793,9 +813,9 @@ cdef validate_feature_range(
         return 0, 0
 
     if skip_features >= feature_count:
-        skip_features = feature_count
+        return 0, 0
 
-    elif max_features == 0:
+    if max_features == 0:
         num_features = feature_count - skip_features
 
     elif max_features > feature_count:
@@ -973,7 +993,7 @@ cdef get_features(
     OGR_L_ResetReading(ogr_layer)
 
     if skip_features > 0:
-        OGR_L_SetNextByIndex(ogr_layer, skip_features)
+        apply_skip_features(ogr_layer, skip_features)
 
     if return_fids:
         fid_data = np.empty(shape=(num_features), dtype=np.int64)
@@ -1148,7 +1168,7 @@ cdef get_bounds(OGRLayerH ogr_layer, int skip_features, int num_features):
     OGR_L_ResetReading(ogr_layer)
 
     if skip_features > 0:
-        OGR_L_SetNextByIndex(ogr_layer, skip_features)
+        apply_skip_features(ogr_layer, skip_features)
 
     fid_data = np.empty(shape=(num_features), dtype=np.int64)
     fid_view = fid_data[:]
@@ -1668,6 +1688,13 @@ def ogr_open_arrow(
         elif mask is not None:
             apply_geometry_filter(ogr_layer, mask)
 
+        # Limit feature range to available range (cannot use logic of
+        # `validate_feature_range` because max_features is not supported)
+        if skip_features > 0:
+            feature_count = get_feature_count(ogr_layer, 1)
+            if skip_features >= feature_count:
+                skip_features = feature_count
+
         # Limit to specified columns
         if ignored_fields:
             for field in ignored_fields:
@@ -1704,9 +1731,11 @@ def ogr_open_arrow(
         if not OGR_L_GetArrowStream(ogr_layer, stream, options):
             raise RuntimeError("Failed to open ArrowArrayStream from Layer")
 
-        if skip_features:
+        if skip_features > 0:
             # only supported for GDAL >= 3.8.0; have to do this after getting
             # the Arrow stream
+            # use `OGR_L_SetNextByIndex` directly and not `apply_skip_features`
+            # to ignore errors in case skip_features == feature_count
             OGR_L_SetNextByIndex(ogr_layer, skip_features)
 
         if use_pyarrow:

pyogrio/tests/test_geopandas_io.py

@@ -759,12 +759,22 @@ def test_read_negative_skip_features(naturalearth_lowres, use_arrow):
         read_dataframe(naturalearth_lowres, skip_features=-1, use_arrow=use_arrow)
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("skip_features", [0, 10, 200])
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("max_features", [10, 100])
-def test_read_max_features(naturalearth_lowres_all_ext, use_arrow, max_features):
+def test_read_max_features(
+    naturalearth_lowres_all_ext, use_arrow, max_features, skip_features
+):
     ext = naturalearth_lowres_all_ext.suffix
-    expected = read_dataframe(naturalearth_lowres_all_ext).iloc[:max_features]
+    expected = (
+        read_dataframe(naturalearth_lowres_all_ext)
+        .iloc[skip_features : skip_features + max_features]
+        .reset_index(drop=True)
+    )
     df = read_dataframe(
-        naturalearth_lowres_all_ext, max_features=max_features, use_arrow=use_arrow
+        naturalearth_lowres_all_ext,
+        skip_features=skip_features,
+        max_features=max_features,
+        use_arrow=use_arrow,
     )
 
     assert len(df) == len(expected)
@@ -775,6 +785,13 @@ def test_read_max_features(naturalearth_lowres_all_ext, use_arrow, max_features)
     # In .geojsonl the vertices are reordered, so normalize
     is_jsons = ext == ".geojsonl"
 
+    if len(expected) == 0 and not use_arrow:
+        # for pandas >= 3, the column has string dtype but when reading it as
+        # empty result, it gets inferred as object dtype
+        expected["continent"] = expected["continent"].astype("object")
+        expected["name"] = expected["name"].astype("object")
+        expected["iso_a3"] = expected["iso_a3"].astype("object")
+
     assert_geodataframe_equal(
         df,
         expected,