Is there a gas limit for view requests?

Question

E.g. a function that just returns huge struct data. Is there any limit in data so that calling this function will not be possible?

pragma solidity ^0.4.13;

contract Project
{
    struct Person {
        address addr;
        uint funds;
    }
    
    Person[] people;
    
    function getPeople(uint[] indexes)
        public
        view
        returns (address[], uint[])
    {
        address[] memory addrs = new address[](indexes.length);
        uint[]    memory funds = new uint[](indexes.length);
        
        for (uint i = 0; i < indexes.length; i++) {
            Person storage person = people[indexes[i]];
            addrs[i] = person.addr;
            funds[i] = person.funds;
        }
        
        return (addrs, funds);
    }
}

code sorce

If I stored 1000000000000... Person, can I return them with getPeople()?

Edit: Changed function to view, avoiding confusions.

Answer 1

If you are calling this from an external account (using web3 or similar) then there is no gas cost associated because the function is view and is resolved in the node you are connected to. On the other side if this is called from a contract, then there would be gas cost asssociated with it and the gaslimit is the same than for any other transaction.

As for the amount you point out, storing this amount of data is impractical and super expensive. reading this form the node will be feasible, but from a contract it wouldn't work.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

Definitively yes, it consumes gas!

It does not consume gas when called from a local node or Web3 ONLY.

The execution of the code you wrote consumes gas on the EVM, even if it does not modify the blockchain but the local memory only.

If this were not the case, any EVM view function should be able to go in a infinite loop without being stopped in the eternity...

For instance your for loop consumes gas: watch at yellow paper tables.

On the other side if your JavaScript application running on your local Pc access public variables, it do not consumes gas in reading the blockchain (by Web3 acces for instance).