SeaQL/sea-orm · error

Must be valid

Error message

Must be valid

What it means

`delete_by_id` builds an `ActiveModel` for the primary key, then calls `Delete::one(am).validate()` and unwraps with `.expect("Must be valid")`. The validation asserts that the delete statement has a WHERE clause on the primary key. Panicking here means the constructed delete was structurally invalid — in practice only reachable if the primary key columns could not be set (e.g. arity mismatch path fell through) or the model type is misconfigured.

Source

Thrown at sea-orm-sync/src/entity/base_entity.rs:1063

    /// #
    /// # Ok(())
    /// # }
    /// ```
    fn delete_by_id<T>(values: T) -> ValidatedDeleteOne<Self>
    where
        T: Into<<Self::PrimaryKey as PrimaryKeyTrait>::ValueType>,
    {
        let mut am = Self::ActiveModel::default();
        let mut keys = Self::PrimaryKey::iter();
        for v in values.into().into_value_tuple() {
            if let Some(key) = keys.next() {
                let col = key.into_column();
                am.set(col, v);
            } else {
                unreachable!("primary key arity mismatch");
            }
        }
        Delete::one(am).validate().expect("Must be valid")
    }
}

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    #[test]
    fn test_delete_by_id_1() {
        use crate::tests_cfg::cake;
        use crate::{DbBackend, entity::*, query::*};
        assert_eq!(
            cake::Entity::delete_by_id(1)
                .build(DbBackend::Sqlite)
                .to_string(),
            r#"DELETE FROM "cake" WHERE "cake"."id" = 1"#,
        );
    }

    #[test]

View on GitHub (pinned to e29bcd1b41)

Solutions

1. Pass the primary key value in the exact form the entity expects (single value for single-column key, tuple for composite keys).
2. Regenerate/fix the entity's PrimaryKey definition so it matches the database schema.
3. Prefer `Entity::delete_by_id(pk).exec(db)` usage patterns from docs and verify the entity compiles tests that call delete_by_id.

Example fix

// before
MyEntity::delete_by_id((id,)) // tuple for single-column key is wrong
// after
MyEntity::delete_by_id(id) // plain value for single-column primary key

// check arity of the key you are about to delete by
let expected: usize = <MyEntity::PrimaryKey as PrimaryKeyTrait>::ValueType::arity();
// single-column key: pass a plain value; composite: pass a tuple of the same length

fn valid_delete_key<E: EntityTrait>(pk: E::PrimaryKey) -> bool { true } // compile-time: only correctly-typed keys convert

// delete_by_id panics internally, so validate types first; runtime errors from exec(db) are catchable:
match MyEntity::delete_by_id(pk).exec(db).await {
    Ok(res) => println!("deleted {}", res.rows_affected),
    Err(DbErr::RecordNotFound(_)) => { /* nothing to delete */ }
    Err(e) => return Err(e.into()),
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `EntityTrait::delete_by_id(value)` where the supplied value cannot be converted into the primary key column set correctly, or a custom entity whose PrimaryKey definition is inconsistent so the ActiveModel is built without its key columns set.

Common situations: Deleting by a composite key while passing a single value, passing the wrong id type after a schema refactor, or hand-rolled entity definitions with broken primary key metadata.

Understand the failure class

Background: "This is a bug, please report it": internal invariant violations, unreachable panics, and SNH errors explained — this error's family across 47 libraries.

Related errors

• Must be valid
• item is a full model
• Already checked arity
• Already checked arity
• trait bound ensured arity

AI-assisted analysis of SeaQL/sea-orm@e29bcd1b41 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/876ac6a538ac91a9. Report an issue: GitHub.