apache/cassandra · error · SyntaxException

Invalid double value

Error message

Invalid double value %s for '%s'

What it means

PropertyDefinitions.parseDouble() (via getDouble) parses a double-typed CQL property value with Double.parseDouble and converts NumberFormatException into a SyntaxException 'Invalid double value %s for %s'. It indicates the named property expects a numeric (fractional-capable) value but received a non-numeric string.

Solutions

1. Provide a plain numeric literal, e.g. 0.05 or 99.0
2. Convert percent notation (50%) to a decimal (0.5) if the option expects a fraction
3. Replace locale decimal commas with dots
4. Trim whitespace and stray quotes from the value

Example fix

// before
ALTER TABLE t WITH crc_check_chance = 1,0;
// after
ALTER TABLE t WITH crc_check_chance = 1.0;

const n = Number(String(value).trim().replace(',', '.')); if (!Number.isFinite(n)) throw new Error(`Invalid double for ${key}: ${value}`);

function isNumericLiteral(v) { return /^-?\d+(\.\d+)?$/.test(String(v).trim()); }

try { runCql(stmt); } catch (e) { if (/Invalid double value .* for/.test(e.message)) normalizeNumericProps(stmt); else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Setting properties like speculative_retry percent values or other double options with values such as 'high', '0.5x', '50 %', or empty strings in CREATE/ALTER TABLE statements.

Common situations: Percent values written as '50%' instead of 0.5; symbolic values where a number is required; trailing whitespace or locale decimal commas (0,5) pasted from non-English locales.

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
• Invalid boolean value
• Invalid integer value
• Invalid value for property
• Invalid value for property

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3d68ba6df618ab55. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cql3/statements/PropertyDefinitions.java:180

    public double getDouble(String key, double defaultValue) throws SyntaxException
    {
        String value = getString(key);
        return value != null ? parseDouble(key, value) : defaultValue;
    }

    public static double parseDouble(String key, String value) throws SyntaxException
    {
        if (null == value)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("value argument can't be null");

        try
        {
            return Double.parseDouble(value);
        }
        catch (NumberFormatException e)
        {
            throw new SyntaxException(format("Invalid double value %s for '%s'", value, key));
        }
    }

    public Object getProperty(String name)
    {
        Object ret = properties.get(name);
        if (ret == null)
            throw new SyntaxException(String.format("Invalid value for property '%s'. It should not be null.", name));

        return ret;
    }
}

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