SonarSource/sonarqube · error · IllegalStateException

"Property: '" + key + "' doesn't contain a valid CSV value…

Error message

"Property: '" + key + "' doesn't contain a valid CSV value: '" + value + "'"

What it means

MultivalueProperty.parseAsCsv parses a property value as CSV. If the CSV reader hits an IOException or UncheckedIOException while parsing, the library wraps it in this IllegalStateException identifying the property key and offending value. It throws because a malformed multi-line CSV value cannot be converted into the expected string array.

Solutions

  1. Quote fields containing special CSV characters (commas, quotes, newlines) correctly
  2. Replace smart quotes / odd whitespace introduced by copy-paste with plain ASCII
  3. Escape or remove unbalanced double quotes inside the value
  4. Test the value with a CSV validator before storing it in settings

Example fix

// before
settings.setProperty("sonar.sources", "a,b\"c");
// after
settings.setProperty("sonar.sources", "a,\"b\"\"c\"");
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// basic CSV sanity check before parsing
if (value == null || value.trim().isEmpty()) {
  return new String[0];
}
long quotes = value.chars().filter(c -> c == '"').count();
if (quotes % 2 != 0) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("unbalanced quotes in CSV value: " + value);
}

Try / catch

try {
  return MultivalueProperty.parseAsCsv(key, value);
} catch (IllegalStateException e) {
  log.error("Bad CSV for property {}: {}", key, e.getCause());
  return value.split(",", -1); // lenient fallback
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling parseAsCsv(key, value) with a value containing unbalanced quotes or otherwise malformed CSV that makes the reader fail mid-parse; multi-line Maven values (multiple records) that trip the record processor.

Common situations: Comma-separated settings copied from spreadsheets or YAML with embedded quotes; multi-line values pasted from pom.xml; shell escaping corrupting quotes around values.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of SonarSource/sonarqube@184c821202 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/87c99dbb41c94169. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sonar-plugin-api-impl/src/main/java/org/sonar/api/config/internal/MultivalueProperty.java:62

  }

  public static String[] parseAsCsv(String key, String value, UnaryOperator<String> valueProcessor) {
    String cleanValue = MultivalueProperty.trimFieldsAndRemoveEmptyFields(value);
    List<String> result = new ArrayList<>();
    try (CSVParser csvParser = CSVFormat.RFC4180.builder()
        .setSkipHeaderRecord(true)
        .setIgnoreEmptyLines(true)
        .setIgnoreSurroundingSpaces(true)
        .build()
      .parse(new StringReader(cleanValue))) {
      List<CSVRecord> records = csvParser.getRecords();
      if (records.isEmpty()) {
        return ArrayUtils.EMPTY_STRING_ARRAY;
      }
      processRecords(result, records, valueProcessor);
      return result.toArray(new String[result.size()]);
    } catch (IOException | UncheckedIOException e) {
      throw new IllegalStateException("Property: '" + key + "' doesn't contain a valid CSV value: '" + value + "'", e);
    }
  }

  /**
   * In most cases we expect a single record. <br>Having multiple records means the input value was splitted over multiple lines (this is common in Maven).
   * For example:
   * <pre>
   *   &lt;sonar.exclusions&gt;
   *     src/foo,
   *     src/bar,
   *     src/biz
   *   &lt;sonar.exclusions&gt;
   * </pre>
   * In this case records will be merged to form a single list of items. Last item of a record is appended to first item of next record.
   * <p>
   * This is a very curious case, but we try to preserve line break in the middle of an item:
   * <pre>
   *   &lt;sonar.exclusions&gt;

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