alibaba/spring-cloud-alibaba · error · ParseException

Invalid Day-of-Week value: '{}'

Error message

Invalid Day-of-Week value: '{}'

What it means

Thrown in storeExpressionVals while parsing the DAY_OF_WEEK field: when a token starts with a letter, getDayOfWeekNumber(sub) returns -1 because the 3-letter abbreviation is unrecognised (SUN,MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT). The parser throws ParseException 'Invalid Day-of-Week value: \'<sub>\''.

Source

Thrown at spring-cloud-alibaba-starters/spring-cloud-starter-alibaba-schedulerx/src/main/java/com/alibaba/cloud/scheduling/schedulerx/util/CronExpression.java:350

			String sub = s.substring(i, i + 3);
			int sval = -1;
			int eval = -1;
			if (type == MONTH) {
				sval = getMonthNumber(sub) + 1;
				if (sval <= 0) {
					throw new ParseException("Invalid Month value: '" + sub + "'", i);
				}
				if (s.length() > i + 3 && (s.charAt(i + 3) == '-')) {
					i += 4;
					sub = s.substring(i, i + 3);
					eval = getMonthNumber(sub) + 1;
					Assert.isTrue(eval > 0, "Invalid Month value: '" + sub + "'");
				}
			}
			else if (type == DAY_OF_WEEK) {
				sval = getDayOfWeekNumber(sub);
				if (sval < 0) {
					throw new ParseException("Invalid Day-of-Week value: '"
							+ sub + "'", i);
				}
				if (s.length() > i + 3) {
					c = s.charAt(i + 3);
					if (c == '-') {
						i += 4;
						sub = s.substring(i, i + 3);
						eval = getDayOfWeekNumber(sub);
						Assert.isTrue(eval >= 0, "Invalid Day-of-Week value: '" + sub + "'");
					}
					else if (c == '#') {
						i += 4;
						nthdayOfWeek = Integer.parseInt(s.substring(i));
						Assert.isTrue(nthdayOfWeek > 0 && nthdayOfWeek < 6, "A numeric value between 1 and 5 must follow the '#' option");
					}
					else if (c == 'L') {
						lastdayOfWeek = true;
						i++;

View on GitHub (pinned to 115d590110)

Solutions

1. Use a valid three-letter weekday abbreviation (SUN,MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT) or numeric 1-7 (1=SUN in Quartz).
2. Remove stray spaces/tabs inside the field; the tokenizer splits on whitespace so each field must be a single token.
3. Validate at config load.

Example fix

# before (typo)
0 0 0 ? * WDN

# after
0 0 0 ? * WED

static String validateCron(String cron) throws ParseException {
    new com.alibaba.cloud.scheduling.schedulerx.util.CronExpression(cron);
    return cron;
}

static final java.util.Set<String> DOW = java.util.Set.of(
    "SUN","MON","TUE","WED","THU","FRI","SAT");
static boolean validDowToken(String t) {
    return DOW.contains(t) || t.matches("[0-9#L]/?[^ ]*");
}

try {
    new CronExpression(cron);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    // "Invalid Day-of-Week value: 'WDN'"
    log.error("Bad day-of-week in cron '{}': {}", cron, e.getMessage());
}

When it happens

Trigger: A day-of-week field with an unrecognised 3-letter token, e.g. '0 0 0 ? * XYZ' or '0 0 0 ? * WED ' with a stray space making a bad substring. The check at CronExpression.java:349-352 fires when sval < 0.

Common situations: Typo in a weekday abbreviation; using 'WEDNESDAY' instead of 'WED'; a numeric value out of the 1-7 range when mixed; extra whitespace producing a wrong 3-char substring.

Related errors

• Support for specifying 'L' and 'LW' with other days of the m
• Support for specifying 'L' with other days of the week is no
• Support for specifying multiple "nth" days is not implemente
• Unexpected end of expression.
• Support for specifying both a day-of-week AND a day-of-month

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/spring-cloud-alibaba@115d590110 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4475a1993d8f9fbb. Report an issue: GitHub.