apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

Invalid list literal for %s: value %s is not of type %s

Error message

Invalid list literal for %s: value %s is not of type %s

What it means

When the receiver is a list, validateAssignableTo type-checks every element literal against the list's value type (Lists.valueSpecOf). If any element fails testAssignment, this error reports which element and what type was expected.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cql3/terms/Lists.java:197

                values.add(t);
            }
            MultiElements.DelayedValue value = new MultiElements.DelayedValue((MultiElementType<?>) receiver.type.unwrap(), values);
            return allTerminal ? value.bind(FunctionContext.NONE) : value;
        }

        private void validateAssignableTo(String keyspace, ColumnSpecification receiver) throws InvalidRequestException
        {
            AbstractType<?> type = receiver.type.unwrap();

            if (!(type instanceof ListType))
                throw invalidRequest("Invalid list literal for %s of type %s", receiver.name, receiver.type.asCQL3Type());

            ColumnSpecification valueSpec = Lists.valueSpecOf(receiver);
            for (Term.Raw rt : elements)
            {
                if (!rt.testAssignment(keyspace, valueSpec).isAssignable())
                    throw invalidRequest("Invalid list literal for %s: value %s is not of type %s", receiver.name, rt, valueSpec.type.asCQL3Type());
            }
        }

        public AssignmentTestable.TestResult testAssignment(String keyspace, ColumnSpecification receiver)
        {
            return testListAssignment(receiver, elements);
        }

        @Override
        public AbstractType<?> getExactTypeIfKnown(String keyspace)
        {
            return getExactListTypeIfKnown(elements, p -> p.getExactTypeIfKnown(keyspace));
        }

        @Override
        public AbstractType<?> getCompatibleTypeIfKnown(String keyspace)
        {
            return Lists.getPreferredCompatibleType(elements, p -> p.getCompatibleTypeIfKnown(keyspace));

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Make every element match the list's declared value type (cast or convert offending elements).
2. Check the element type with DESCRIBE TABLE and fix the data source generating the literal.
3. For mixed input, preprocess in the application and bind typed parameters instead of raw literals.

Example fix

// before (nums is list<text>)
INSERT INTO t (id, nums) VALUES (1, [1, 2]);
// after
INSERT INTO t (id, nums) VALUES (1, ['1', '2']);

// parse declared element type, e.g. list<text> -> text, then coerce each element before building the literal
elements.forEach(e -> coerceToType(e, elementType));

When it happens

Trigger: INSERT/UPDATE with a list literal containing an element of the wrong type, e.g. [1, 'two'] for list<text>, or [user-defined-literal] not assignable to a UDT element type.

Common situations: Mixed-type literals generated programmatically; untyped JSON/CSV import mapped directly to CQL literals; schema element type changed (e.g. int -> text) while client literals did not.

Understand the failure class

Background: Type mismatch errors: IllegalArgumentException, TypeError and type guards across 150 open-source libraries — this error's family across 150 libraries.

Related errors

• Value for a map addition has to be a map, but was: '%s'
• Value for a map substraction has to be a set, but was: '%s'
• Invalid operation (%s) for non list column %s
• Unexpected receiver type '%s'; only list and vector are expe
• Invalid list literal for %s of type %s

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/847e1932110f3192. Report an issue: GitHub.