apache/cassandra · error · ConfigurationException

Invalid value '%s' for caching sub-option '%s': only '%s', '

Error message

Invalid value '%s' for caching sub-option '%s': only '%s', '%s', and integer values are allowed

What it means

The 'rows_per_partition' caching sub-option accepts only 'ALL', 'NONE', or a plain integer. rowsPerPartitionFromString throws ConfigurationException for any other value while parsing the option during schema statements.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/schema/CachingParams.java:153

    }

    String keysAsString()
    {
        return cacheKeys ? ALL : NONE;
    }

    private static int rowsPerPartitionFromString(String value)
    {
        if (value.equalsIgnoreCase(ALL))
            return Integer.MAX_VALUE;

        if (value.equalsIgnoreCase(NONE))
            return 0;

        if (StringUtils.isNumeric(value))
            return Integer.parseInt(value);

        throw new ConfigurationException(format("Invalid value '%s' for caching sub-option '%s':"
                                                + " only '%s', '%s', and integer values are allowed",
                                                value,
                                                Option.ROWS_PER_PARTITION,
                                                ALL,
                                                NONE));
    }

    String rowsPerPartitionAsString()
    {
        if (rowsPerPartitionToCache == 0)
            return NONE;
        else if (rowsPerPartitionToCache == Integer.MAX_VALUE)
            return ALL;
        else
            return Integer.toString(rowsPerPartitionToCache);
    }

    @Override

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

Set rows_per_partition to 'ALL', 'NONE', or a plain integer like '100'
Remove the sub-option to use the default
Verify the string contains only digits (StringUtils.isNumeric is used)

Example fix

// before
caching = {'rows_per_partition': 'auto'}
// after
caching = {'rows_per_partition': '200'}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

String v = cachingMap.get("rows_per_partition");
if (v != null && !(v.equalsIgnoreCase("ALL") || v.equalsIgnoreCase("NONE") || v.matches("\\d+"))) throw new IllegalArgumentException("rows_per_partition must be ALL, NONE, or an integer");

Type guard

boolean isValidRowsPerPartition(String v) { return "ALL".equalsIgnoreCase(v) || "NONE".equalsIgnoreCase(v) || v.matches("\\d+"); }

Try / catch

try { session.execute(ddl); } catch (InvalidQueryException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("rows_per_partition")) { /* correct the value and retry */ } else throw e; }

Prevention

Represent row counts as integers in config, stringify only at DDL generation
Reject floats/units in config parsing before they reach DDL
Test generated DDL against a scratch keyspace in CI

When it happens

Trigger: CREATE TABLE ... WITH caching = {'rows_per_partition': 'auto'} or {'rows_per_partition': '10.5'} or {'rows_per_partition': '100 rows'} — anything that is not ALL, NONE, or a numeric string.

Common situations: Using descriptive words instead of numbers (e.g. 'default'), floating-point counts, or values with units; confusion with pre-3.0 caching option names like 'rows_per_partition_to_cache'.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bcfd226266b2ab07. Report an issue: GitHub.