validity check

Signed-off-by: Andrew Duffy <andrew@a10y.dev>

Author: a10y

vortex-array/src/arrays/patched/array.rs

@@ -126,7 +126,10 @@ impl PatchedArray {
     ///
     /// # Errors
     ///
-    /// The `inner` array must be primitive type, and it must have the same DType as the patches.
+    /// The `inner` array must be primitive type, and it must have the same `DType` as the patches.
+    ///
+    /// The patches cannot contain nulls themselves. Any nulls must be stored in the `inner` array's
+    /// validity.
     pub fn from_array_and_patches(
         inner: ArrayRef,
         patches: &Patches,
@@ -147,6 +150,11 @@ impl PatchedArray {
             "PatchedArray does not support > u32::MAX patch values"
         );
 
+        vortex_ensure!(
+            patches.values().all_valid()?,
+            "PatchedArray cannot be built from Patches with nulls"
+        );
+
         let values_ptype = patches.dtype().as_ptype();
 
         let TransposedPatches {