web3.eth.getBlock returns null

Question

I have a very similar problem as https://github.com/paritytech/parity-ethereum/issues/8788

When I use web3.eth.getBlock for the first 1 million and latest 50,000 blocks (approximately), I get the desired output, while for blocks number 1,000,000 to latest-50,000 it returns null.

I'm using Parity v1.10.8-stable on Windows 10. My node is connected to Ethereum mainnet and fully synchronized. web3 version 0.20.6.

Is this a bug and I can't do anything or can it be fixed?

My script:

const Web3 = require('web3');
const web3 = new Web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider("http://localhost:8545")); 

const run  = async () => {
    const latestBlock = 6039000
    console.log('+100', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(100)))
    console.log('+1000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(1000)))
    console.log('+10000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(10000)))
    console.log('+100000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(100000)))
    console.log('+1000000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(100000)))
    console.log('+2500000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(2500000)))
    console.log('-2500000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(latestBlock-2500000)))
    console.log('-1000000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(latestBlock-100000)))
    console.log('-100000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(latestBlock-100000)))
    console.log('-10000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(latestBlock-10000)))
    console.log('-1000', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(latestBlock-1000)))
    console.log('-100', !!(await web3.eth.getBlock(latestBlock-100)))
}

run()

Output:

+100 true
+1000 true
+10000 true
+100000 true
+1000000 true
+2500000 false
-2500000 false
-1000000 false
-100000 false
-10000 true
-1000 true
-100 true

Answer 1

This just means that the block is in a pending state.

This could be so because your node is not up to speed with the blockchain.

If you are wanting to get the latest available block number, use getBlockNumber.