apache/cassandra · error · InvalidConstraintDefinitionException

Constraint %s does not accept any arguments.

Error message

Constraint %s does not accept any arguments.

What it means

ConstraintFunction.maybeThrowOnNonEmptyArguments throws InvalidConstraintDefinitionException when a parameterless constraint (isParameterless() == true, e.g. the JSON constraint) is declared with arguments. Validation happens at schema definition time via validate(), so the constraint's declared argument list must be empty.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cql3/constraints/ConstraintFunction.java:145

     *     val int check someconstraint('abc', 'def')
     * </pre>
     * @return true if this constraint does not accept any parameters, false otherwise.
     */
    public boolean isParameterless() { return true; }

    @Override
    public String toString()
    {
        return name;
    }

    protected void maybeThrowOnNonEmptyArguments(String constraintName)
    {
        if (!isParameterless())
            return;

        if (args != null && !args.isEmpty())
            throw new InvalidConstraintDefinitionException(format("Constraint %s does not accept any arguments.", constraintName));
    }

    private List<String> unquote(List<String> quotedArgs)
    {
        List<String> unquotedArgs = new ArrayList<>();
        for (String quotedArg : quotedArgs)
            unquotedArgs.add(ParseUtils.unquote(quotedArg));

        return unquotedArgs;
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Remove the arguments from the parameterless constraint declaration, e.g. `CHECK JSON()`.
2. If parameters are needed, use a constraint type that accepts arguments (e.g. LENGTH).
3. Adjust schema-generating code to omit arguments for parameterless constraints.

Example fix

// before
payload text CONSTRAINT CHECK JSON('strict')
// after
payload text CONSTRAINT CHECK JSON()

if (constraint.isParameterless() && args != null && !args.isEmpty())
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Constraint " + constraint.name() + " takes no arguments");

When it happens

Trigger: CREATE TABLE / ALTER TABLE declaring a parameterless constraint with parentheses arguments, e.g. `col text CONSTRAINT json_value CHECK JSON('someArg')`.

Common situations: Copying the argument style of LENGTH-style constraints onto JSON/NOT-NULL constraints; generated DDL that always emits an argument list.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Constraint '%s' can be used only for columns of type %s but
• Constraint cannot be defined on the column <name> of type <t
• There are duplicate constraint definitions on column '%s': %
• Constraint %s was not specified on a column it operates on:
• %s constraint can not be specified on a %s key column '%s'

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/634300d20639adc7. Report an issue: GitHub.