apache/cassandra · error · InvalidTypeException

Cannot parse collection value from "%s", invalid CQL value a

Error message

Cannot parse collection value from "%s", invalid CQL value at character %d

What it means

Thrown by collection codecs' parse() when an element of the collection literal is not a syntactically valid CQL value. The underlying ParseUtils.skipCQLValue scanner throws IllegalArgumentException, which the codec wraps in an InvalidTypeException identifying the offending character position.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cql3/functions/types/TypeCodec.java:2207

                String.format(
                "Cannot parse collection value from \"%s\", at character %d expecting '%s' but got '%c'",
                value, idx, getOpeningChar(), value.charAt(idx)));

            idx = ParseUtils.skipSpaces(value, idx);

            if (value.charAt(idx) == getClosingChar()) return newInstance(0);

            C l = newInstance(10);
            while (idx < value.length())
            {
                int n;
                try
                {
                    n = ParseUtils.skipCQLValue(value, idx);
                }
                catch (IllegalArgumentException e)
                {
                    throw new InvalidTypeException(
                    String.format(
                    "Cannot parse collection value from \"%s\", invalid CQL value at character %d",
                    value, idx),
                    e);
                }

                l.add(eltCodec.parse(value.substring(idx, n)));
                idx = n;

                idx = ParseUtils.skipSpaces(value, idx);
                if (value.charAt(idx) == getClosingChar()) return l;
                if (value.charAt(idx++) != ',')
                    throw new InvalidTypeException(
                    String.format(
                    "Cannot parse collection value from \"%s\", at character %d expecting ',' but got '%c'",
                    value, idx, value.charAt(idx)));

                idx = ParseUtils.skipSpaces(value, idx);

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Quote string elements with single quotes and escape internal quotes by doubling them: ['it''s']
2. Validate/escape user input before embedding it in a CQL literal (use the element codec's format() on each element instead of string concatenation)
3. Bind typed values instead of parsing raw strings to bypass literal syntax entirely
4. Remove empty elements and trailing commas from the literal

Example fix

// before
List<String> l = textListCodec.parse("[a,b]"); // 'a' is invalid CQL value for text
// after
List<String> l = textListCodec.parse("['a','b']");

// before parse: build literal via element codec instead of raw interpolation
String literal = elements.stream()
    .map(e -> e == null ? "null" : "'" + e.replace("'", "''") + "'")
    .collect(Collectors.joining(",", "[", "]"));

try {
    return codec.parse(literal);
} catch (InvalidTypeException e) {
    LOG.warn("Invalid CQL value in literal at reported position: {}", e.getMessage());
    return null;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling parse() on a collection literal containing a malformed element, e.g. an unquoted string containing special characters ( [a] for list<text>), unterminated quoted string ['abc], or an invalid numeric literal like [1.2.3].

Common situations: String elements with commas, brackets or quotes that are not single-quote escaped; user-supplied input interpolated directly into literals; values copied from JSON or CSV without escaping; empty elements like [,] or trailing commas.

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

• Cannot parse collection value from "%s", at character %d exp
• Cannot parse collection value from "%s", at character %d exp
• Cannot parse 32-bits int value from "%s"
• Cannot parse timestamp value from "%s"
• Cannot parse date value from "%s"

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0786a8c72af4f39f. Report an issue: GitHub.