apache/beam · error · IllegalArgumentException

No such table

Error message

No such table: ${name}

What it means

InMemoryMetaStore.alterTable requires the named table to exist in the metastore before returning the provider's AlterTableOps; otherwise it throws IllegalArgumentException("No such table: ..."). It is the alter-path equivalent of the dropTable existence check.

Solutions

1. Create the table before altering it.
2. Check existence first: if (metaStore.getTable(name) != null) { metaStore.alterTable(name); }
3. Fix the table name to match the registered one exactly.

Example fix

// before
metaStore.alterTable("orders").addFields(...);
// after
if (metaStore.getTable("orders") != null) {
  metaStore.alterTable("orders").addFields(...);
}

if (metaStore.getTable(name) == null) {
  throw new IllegalStateException("Cannot alter missing table: " + name);
}
metaStore.alterTable(name);

try {
  metaStore.alterTable(name).addFields(...);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().startsWith("No such table")) { /* create first or fix name */ }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling metaStore.alterTable(name) for a table never created, already dropped, or with mismatched casing/spelling.

Common situations: Schema-evolution scripts running before table setup; renaming tables and forgetting to update alter calls; running ALTER against a fresh metastore in tests.

Understand the failure class

Background: Record Not Found Errors: "not found", RecordNotFound, and "was not found" — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• No such table
• Duplicate table name
• Duplicate table: from provider
• No TableProvider registered for table type
• Provider is already registered for table type

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/92e18d308401342d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sdks/java/extensions/sql/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/extensions/sql/meta/store/InMemoryMetaStore.java:158

  public TableProvider getProvider(String type) {
    @Nullable TableProvider provider = providers.get(type.toLowerCase());
    if (provider != null) {
      return provider;
    }

    // check nested InMemoryMetaStore
    provider = providers.get(getTableType());
    if (provider != null && (provider instanceof InMemoryMetaStore)) {
      return ((InMemoryMetaStore) provider).getProvider(type);
    }

    throw new IllegalStateException("No TableProvider registered for table type: " + type);
  }

  @Override
  public AlterTableOps alterTable(String name) {
    if (!tables.containsKey(name)) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("No such table: " + name);
    }

    Table table = tables.get(name);
    return getProvider(table.getType()).alterTable(name);
  }
}

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