SeaQL/sea-orm · error

Failed to get date array

Error message

Failed to get date array

What it means

Panic from `.expect()` in SeaORM's Postgres ProxyRow conversion for `DATE[]` columns in the chrono branch. The driver decodes the column as `Option<Vec<chrono::NaiveDate>>`; a sqlx decode failure (the column's element OID isn't `date`, or the chrono array impl isn't compiled) becomes the panic "Failed to get date array".

Source

Thrown at src/driver/sqlx_postgres.rs:771

                                }),
                        ),

                        #[cfg(feature = "with-chrono")]
                        "DATE" => Value::ChronoDate(
                            row.try_get::<Option<chrono::NaiveDate>, _>(c.ordinal())
                                .expect("Failed to get date"),
                        ),
                        #[cfg(all(feature = "with-time", not(feature = "with-chrono")))]
                        "DATE" => Value::TimeDate(
                            row.try_get::<Option<time::Date>, _>(c.ordinal())
                                .expect("Failed to get date"),
                        ),

                        #[cfg(all(feature = "with-chrono", feature = "postgres-array"))]
                        "DATE[]" => Value::Array(
                            sea_query::ArrayType::ChronoDate,
                            row.try_get::<Option<Vec<chrono::NaiveDate>>, _>(c.ordinal())
                                .expect("Failed to get date array")
                                .map(|vals| {
                                    Box::new(
                                        vals.into_iter()
                                            .map(|val| Value::ChronoDate(Some(val)))
                                            .collect(),
                                    )
                                }),
                        ),
                        #[cfg(all(
                            feature = "with-time",
                            not(feature = "with-chrono"),
                            feature = "postgres-array"
                        ))]
                        "DATE[]" => Value::Array(
                            sea_query::ArrayType::TimeDate,
                            row.try_get::<Option<Vec<time::Date>>, _>(c.ordinal())
                                .expect("Failed to get date array")
                                .map(|vals| {

View on GitHub (pinned to e29bcd1b41)

Solutions

1. Confirm the column type is exactly `date[]` (`\d table`) and cast in SQL if it isn't (`col::date[]`).
2. Enable both `with-chrono` and `postgres-array` features on sea-orm.
3. Align sea-orm and sqlx versions so chrono array decoding is available.
4. Select the array as JSON/text and parse manually when the element type is uncertain.

Example fix

// before: column is timestamptz[]
let rows = q.map(|row| row.into_proxy_row()).await?; // panics

// after
let stmt = Statement::from_string(
    db.get_database_backend(),
    "SELECT holidays::date[] AS holidays FROM schedules",
);

let elem: Option<String> = sqlx::query_scalar(
    "SELECT e.data_type FROM information_schema.columns c, LATERAL (SELECT data_type FROM information_schema.element_types WHERE object_name=c.table_name AND collection_type_identifier=c.dtd_identifier) e WHERE c.table_name=$1 AND c.column_name=$2")
    .bind("schedules").bind("holidays").fetch_optional(db).await?;
assert_eq!(elem.as_deref(), Some("date"));

fn is_date_array(elem_type: &str) -> bool { elem_type.eq_ignore_ascii_case("date") }

let result = std::panic::catch_unwind(AssertUnwindSafe(|| stmt_to_proxy_rows(&stmt)));
match result {
    Ok(rows) => rows,
    Err(_) => decode_array_via_text_fallback("holidays"),
}

When it happens

Trigger: Selecting a `DATE[]` column through ProxyRow with `with-chrono` + `postgres-array` features, and the value doesn't decode to `Vec<NaiveDate>` — typically because the column is `timestamptz[]`, `timestamp[]`, a domain, or an int-array mistakenly matched as `DATE[]`.

Common situations: Schema drift where the array element type changed; using generated columns or views with unexpected array element types; feature flags missing `postgres-array` so a prior branch grabbed the value; sqlx/sea-orm version mismatch removing chrono array decode support.

Understand the failure class

Background: Type mismatch errors: IllegalArgumentException, TypeError and type guards across 150 open-source libraries — this error's family across 150 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to get timestamp array
• Failed to get date
• Failed to get time array
• Failed to get boolean array
• Failed to get small integer array

AI-assisted analysis of SeaQL/sea-orm@e29bcd1b41 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6afe7c0a3691e151. Report an issue: GitHub.