Budibase/budibase · error · BadRequestError

Column name cannot be empty

Error message

Column name cannot be empty

What it means

migrate() validates that the new column name is non-empty before performing the relationship-column migration; an empty string would create an unusable schema key, so a BadRequestError is thrown.

Source

Thrown at packages/server/src/sdk/workspace/tables/migration.ts:37

import sdk from "../.."
import { EventType, updateLinks } from "../../../db/linkedRows"
import { isExternalTableID } from "../../../integrations/utils"

export interface MigrationResult {
  tablesUpdated: Table[]
}

export async function migrate(
  table: Table,
  oldColumnName: string,
  newColumnName: string
): Promise<MigrationResult> {
  if (newColumnName in table.schema) {
    throw new BadRequestError(`Column "${newColumnName}" already exists`)
  }

  if (newColumnName === "") {
    throw new BadRequestError(`Column name cannot be empty`)
  }

  if (isInternalColumnName(newColumnName)) {
    throw new BadRequestError(`Column name cannot be a reserved column name`)
  }

  const oldColumn = table.schema[oldColumnName]

  if (!oldColumn) {
    throw new BadRequestError(
      `Column "${oldColumnName}" does not exist on table "${table.name}"`
    )
  }

  if (
    oldColumn.type !== FieldType.LINK ||
    oldColumn.tableId !== InternalTable.USER_METADATA
  ) {

View on GitHub (pinned to a81a902e9a)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-empty newColumnName after trimming user input
2. Validate the name in the caller before invoking migrate
3. Check that the variable holding the name is actually populated
4. Add a trim+length check in your request handler

Example fix

// before
await sdk.tables.migration.migrate(table, oldCol, userInput)
// after
const name = userInput.trim()
if (!name) throw new Error('New column name required')
await sdk.tables.migration.migrate(table, oldCol, name)

const name = (userInput ?? '').trim()
if (!name) throw new Error('New column name is required')

function isNonEmptyString(v: unknown): v is string {
  return typeof v === 'string' && v.trim().length > 0
}

try {
  await sdk.tables.migration.migrate(table, oldName, newName)
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message === 'Column name cannot be empty') {
    // prompt for a valid name and retry
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling migrate(table, oldColumnName, '') — typically an unset form input or unbound variable passed as the new name.

Common situations: UI submitting a rename form with a blank field; a variable that failed to initialize; trimming not applied to whitespace-only input (only strict '' is caught here).

Related errors

• Invalid URL.
• Column "${newColumnName}" already exists
• Column name cannot be a reserved column name
• Column "${oldColumnName}" does not exist on table "${table.n
• External tables cannot be migrated

AI-assisted analysis of Budibase/budibase@a81a902e9a (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/95219c1d64d0efeb. Report an issue: GitHub.