apache/beam · error · IllegalArgumentException

Provided length is bigger than max length

Error message

Provided length %s is bigger than max length %s 

What it means

SnowflakeVarchar(long) validates the declared VARCHAR length against MAX_LENGTH (Snowflake's maximum VARCHAR length, 4194304 characters). Lengths above the maximum are not representable by Snowflake's VARCHAR type, so the constructor throws an IllegalArgumentException.

Solutions

1. Use a length of at most 4194304, or use the no-arg SnowflakeVarchar() / VARCHAR default which Snowflake treats as maximum size.
2. Replace sentinel values like Long.MAX_VALUE with SnowflakeVarchar.MAX_LENGTH.
3. Adjust ported DDL definitions to Snowflake's VARCHAR limits.

Example fix

// before
new SnowflakeVarchar(Long.MAX_VALUE)
// after
new SnowflakeVarchar(SnowflakeVarchar.MAX_LENGTH)

if (length > SnowflakeVarchar.MAX_LENGTH) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("length must be <= " + SnowflakeVarchar.MAX_LENGTH);
}

static boolean isValidVarcharLength(long length) { return length >= 0 && length <= 4194304L; }

try {
  SnowflakeVarchar col = new SnowflakeVarchar(length);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("bigger than max length")) { col = new SnowflakeVarchar(); /* default max */ }
  else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling new SnowflakeVarchar(length) or the equivalent factory with length > 4194304, e.g. when declaring a VARCHAR column of 'unlimited' size with a too-large sentinel value.

Common situations: Porting schemas from other databases where VARCHAR can be larger; using a placeholder like Long.MAX_VALUE to mean 'max length' instead of the Snowflake maximum.

Understand the failure class

Background: "value must be between 0 and 1" / "out of range" / "must not be negative" errors: fixing range-validation failures across open-source libraries — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

• Provided size is bigger than max size
• Either table or query must be specified.
• Exactly one authentication method must be configured…
• Given message schema
• Given message schema

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/82473c770e6a8ff3. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sdks/java/io/snowflake/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/snowflake/data/text/SnowflakeVarchar.java:42

  "nullness" // TODO(https://github.com/apache/beam/issues/20497)
})
public class SnowflakeVarchar implements SnowflakeDataType, Serializable {
  public static final Long MAX_LENGTH = 16777216L;
  private Long length;

  public static SnowflakeVarchar of() {
    return new SnowflakeVarchar();
  }

  public static SnowflakeVarchar of(long length) {
    return new SnowflakeVarchar(length);
  }

  public SnowflakeVarchar() {}

  public SnowflakeVarchar(long length) {
    if (length > MAX_LENGTH) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(
          String.format("Provided length %s is bigger than max length %s ", length, MAX_LENGTH));
    }
    this.length = length;
  }

  @Override
  public String sql() {
    if (length != null) {
      return String.format("VARCHAR(%d)", length);
    }
    return "VARCHAR";
  }

  public Long getLength() {
    return length;
  }

  public void setLength(Long length) {

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