apache/cassandra · error · InvalidTypeException

Cannot parse tuple value from

Error message

Cannot parse tuple value from "%s", at character %d expecting '(' but got '%c'

What it means

The tuple codec's parse method expects CQL literal syntax, which must begin with '('. If the first non-space character of the input string is anything else, this InvalidTypeException is thrown with the offending character and its position. It is a string-literal parsing error, not a network or serialization issue.

Solutions

1. Wrap the value in parentheses: parse("(1, 'abc')") instead of parse("1, 'abc'").
2. Strip surrounding whitespace and validate the first non-space char is '(' before calling parse.
3. If the data is already structured, build a TupleValue via TupleType.newValue(...) instead of parsing strings.
4. Check for locale/formatting transformations that removed or replaced parentheses.

Example fix

// before
TupleValue v = tupleType.parse("1, 'abc'");
// after
TupleValue v = tupleType.parse("(1, 'abc')");

String s = input.trim(); if (!s.startsWith("(")) throw new IllegalArgumentException("tuple literal must start with '(': " + s);

try { return tupleType.parse(literal); } catch (InvalidTypeException e) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("malformed tuple literal: " + literal, e); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling TupleCodec.parse with input like "1, 'abc'" or "[1,'abc']" instead of "(1, 'abc')"; binding a user-entered tuple literal that lacks the opening parenthesis.

Common situations: Users typing tuple values in cqlsh or a form without parentheses; JSON-ish input fed to parse; copying values from logs that stripped the parens.

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 tuple value from
• Cannot parse tuple value from
• Malformed tuple value
• Cannot parse collection value from
• Cannot parse collection value from

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/80447c66f0e578e6. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cql3/functions/types/TypeCodec.java:2954

            for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
            {
                if (i > 0) sb.append(',');
                sb.append(formatField(value, i));
            }
            sb.append(')');
            return sb.toString();
        }

        @Override
        public T parse(String value)
        {
            if (value == null || value.isEmpty() || value.equalsIgnoreCase("NULL")) return null;

            T v = newInstance();

            int idx = ParseUtils.skipSpaces(value, 0);
            if (value.charAt(idx++) != '(')
                throw new InvalidTypeException(
                String.format(
                "Cannot parse tuple value from \"%s\", at character %d expecting '(' but got '%c'",
                value, idx, value.charAt(idx)));

            idx = ParseUtils.skipSpaces(value, idx);

            if (value.charAt(idx) == ')') return v;

            int i = 0;
            while (idx < value.length())
            {
                int n;
                try
                {
                    n = ParseUtils.skipCQLValue(value, idx);
                }
                catch (IllegalArgumentException e)
                {

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