apache/cassandra · error · InvalidTypeException

Cannot parse decimal value from "%s"

Error message

Cannot parse decimal value from "%s"

What it means

The decimal codec's parse() delegates to new BigDecimal(value); strings that are not valid decimal representations raise NumberFormatException, rethrown as InvalidTypeException. Valid forms are optional sign, digits with optional decimal point and exponent — like CQL decimal literals.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cql3/functions/types/TypeCodec.java:1310

        private static final DecimalCodec instance = new DecimalCodec();

        private DecimalCodec()
        {
            super(DataType.decimal(), BigDecimal.class);
        }

        @Override
        public BigDecimal parse(String value)
        {
            try
            {
                return value == null || value.isEmpty() || value.equalsIgnoreCase("NULL")
                       ? null
                       : new BigDecimal(value);
            }
            catch (NumberFormatException e)
            {
                throw new InvalidTypeException(
                String.format("Cannot parse decimal value from \"%s\"", value));
            }
        }

        @Override
        public String format(BigDecimal value)
        {
            if (value == null) return "NULL";
            return value.toString();
        }

        @Override
        public ByteBuffer serialize(BigDecimal value, ProtocolVersion protocolVersion)
        {
            if (value == null) return null;
            BigInteger bi = value.unscaledValue();
            int scale = value.scale();
            byte[] bibytes = bi.toByteArray();

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Normalize the string: strip currency symbols and grouping separators, convert the decimal comma to a dot, trim whitespace.
2. Use a NumberFormat with the correct Locale and parse to BigDecimal, then pass its toPlainString().
3. Use codec.format(BigDecimal) when starting from a real BigDecimal instead of a string.

Example fix

// before
decimalCodec.parse("1.234,56"); // throws (NumberFormatException)
// after
String normalized = "1.234,56".replace(".", "").replace(',', '.'); // "1234.56"
decimalCodec.parse(normalized);

static boolean isCqlDecimalLiteral(String v) {
    return v != null && v.trim().matches("^[+-]?(\\d+(\\.\\d*)?|\\.\\d+)([eE][+-]?\\d+)?$" );
}

boolean isDecimalLiteral(String v) {
    if (v == null) return false;
    try { new BigDecimal(v.trim()); return true; } catch (NumberFormatException e) { return false; }
}

try {
    return decimalCodec.parse(raw);
} catch (InvalidTypeException e) {
    String norm = raw.replace(".", "").replace(',', '.').trim();
    return decimalCodec.parse(norm);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling decimalCodec.parse(value) with non-numeric or malformed strings such as "abc", "1,234.5", "1.2.3", empty-after-NULL-check tokens, or locale-formatted numbers.

Common situations: CSV/JSON imports with thousands separators or comma decimal points (European locales); currency symbols in the string; scientific notation from one system pasted where a different syntax is expected; whitespace or invisible characters.

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 64-bits double value from "%s"
• Cannot parse 64-bits long value from "%s"
• Cannot parse boolean value from "%s"
• Invalid decimal value, expecting at least 4 bytes but got
• text or varchar values must be enclosed by single quotes

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/686bbc2a3fcb9ee8. Report an issue: GitHub.