apache/beam · error · IllegalArgumentException

Either Query or Table must be specified.

Error message

Either Query or Table must be specified.

What it means

Validation guard in JdbcReadSchemaTransformProvider (and related transforms): a JDBC read requires exactly one source specification — either a read query or a table name. When neither (or both are empty/null) is supplied, validate() throws IllegalArgumentException before building the transform.

Solutions

1. Set readQuery with a SELECT statement, e.g. setReadQuery("SELECT * FROM my_table").
2. Or set location to the table name.
3. Add a config pre-check that fails with a clear message when both fields are empty.

Example fix

// before
builder().setJdbcUrl(url).setJdbcType("mysql") // nothing to read
// after
builder().setJdbcUrl(url).setJdbcType("mysql").setReadQuery("SELECT * FROM users")

if (!hasText(config.getReadQuery()) && !hasText(config.getLocation())) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("Provide either readQuery or location (table)");
}
static boolean hasText(String s) { return s != null && !s.isBlank(); }

try {
  config.validate();
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  if ("Either Query or Table must be specified.".equals(e.getMessage())) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("No read source configured: pass --query or --table", e);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling from()/validate() on a configuration where both getReadQuery() is null/empty and getLocation() is null/empty.

Common situations: Programmatically built configs where the query is interpolated from user input that turned out empty; CLI/templated pipelines where neither --query nor --table was passed.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• JDBC URL cannot be blank
• Query and Table are mutually exclusive configurations
• Batch size is too large! It should be smaller or equal than
• Column delimiter should be set if headers are present.
• Column headers should be supplied when delimiter is present.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5cba9acf30349dc2. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sdks/java/io/jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/jdbc/JdbcReadSchemaTransformProvider.java:435

        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "One of JDBC Driver class name or JDBC type must be specified.");
      }
      if (jdbcTypePresent
          && !JDBC_DRIVER_MAP.containsKey(Objects.requireNonNull(jdbcType).toLowerCase())) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("JDBC type must be one of " + JDBC_DRIVER_MAP.keySet());
      }

      boolean readQueryPresent = (getReadQuery() != null && !"".equals(getReadQuery()));
      boolean locationPresent = (getLocation() != null && !"".equals(getLocation()));
      boolean partitionColumnPresent =
          (getPartitionColumn() != null && !"".equals(getPartitionColumn()));

      // If you specify a readQuery, it is to be used instead of a table.
      if (readQueryPresent && locationPresent) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Query and Table are mutually exclusive configurations");
      }
      if (!readQueryPresent && !locationPresent) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Either Query or Table must be specified.");
      }
      // Reading with partitions only supports table argument.
      if (partitionColumnPresent && !locationPresent) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Table must be specified to read with partitions.");
      }
    }

    public static Builder builder() {
      return new AutoValue_JdbcReadSchemaTransformProvider_JdbcReadSchemaTransformConfiguration
          .Builder();
    }

    public abstract Builder toBuilder();

    @AutoValue.Builder
    public abstract static class Builder {
      public abstract Builder setDriverClassName(String value);

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