java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException for 8 character column values

[hutch3232]

I am trying to create a column with a constant string. I found that if the nchar of the string is a multiple of 8 an array index out of bounds exception is thrown.

library(data.table)
library(h2o)

h2o.init(port = 5551)
h2o.getVersion()
# [1] "3.44.0.3"

mt <- as.h2o(mtcars)
mt$test <- paste0(sample(letters, 8, replace = TRUE), collapse = "")
# ERROR MESSAGE:
# 
# DistributedException from localhost/127.0.0.1:5551: 'Index 142 out of bounds for length 142', caused by # java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: Index 142 out of bounds for length 142

# passing in values of <n> 1:7, 9:15, 17:23, etc. works
mt <- as.h2o(mtcars)
mt$test <- paste0(sample(letters, <n>, replace = TRUE), collapse = "")

A workaround is to create the column with nchar %% 8 != 0 and then assign the column again, this time it will work.