From ed0ae66ac2e4abcfcce1c4ed8f0982e0738d919e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: John Kerl <kerl.john.r@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2026 23:49:31 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Fix #1998 (#2005)

---
 pkg/input/record_reader_pprint.go             | 14 ++++++++------
 .../io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/cmd      |  1 +
 .../io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/experr   |  0
 .../io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/expout   | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
 .../io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/input    |  4 ++++
 5 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/cmd
 create mode 100644 test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/experr
 create mode 100644 test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/expout
 create mode 100644 test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/input

diff --git a/pkg/input/record_reader_pprint.go b/pkg/input/record_reader_pprint.go
index 402eca8b6..2f10a9196 100644
--- a/pkg/input/record_reader_pprint.go
+++ b/pkg/input/record_reader_pprint.go
@@ -646,12 +646,14 @@ func getRecordBatchImplicitPprintHeader(
 			}
 			if nh < nd {
 				// if header shorter than data: use 1-up itoa keys
-				key := strconv.FormatInt(i+1, 10)
-				value := mlrval.FromDeferredType(fields[i])
-				_, err := record.PutReferenceMaybeDedupe(key, value, dedupeFieldNames)
-				if err != nil {
-					errorChannel <- err
-					return
+				for i = nh; i < nd; i++ {
+					key := strconv.FormatInt(i+1, 10)
+					value := mlrval.FromDeferredType(fields[i])
+					_, err := record.PutReferenceMaybeDedupe(key, value, dedupeFieldNames)
+					if err != nil {
+						errorChannel <- err
+						return
+					}
 				}
 			}
 			if nh > nd {
diff --git a/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/cmd b/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/cmd
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f63f4bef0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/cmd
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+mlr --ipprint --barred-input -N --ragged --ojson cat ${CASEDIR}/input
diff --git a/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/experr b/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/experr
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/expout b/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/expout
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..30f7e3baf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/expout
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+[
+{
+  "1": "a",
+  "2": "b",
+  "3": "c"
+},
+{
+  "1": "a",
+  "2": "b",
+  "3": ""
+},
+{
+  "1": "a",
+  "2": "b",
+  "3": "c",
+  "4": "d",
+  "5": "e"
+}
+]
diff --git a/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/input b/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/input
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e3bd2549d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/cases/io-barred-pprint/ragged-implicit/input
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+| a | b | c |
+| a | b |
+| a | b | c | d | e |
++---+---+---+---+---+