apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

(message of wrapped InvalidConstraintDefinitionException)

Error message

(message of wrapped InvalidConstraintDefinitionException)

What it means

During TableMetadata.validate, column constraint validation failures (InvalidConstraintDefinitionException) are re-wrapped as InvalidRequestException preserving the original message. The table's constraint definitions are semantically invalid and cannot be announced.

Solutions

Read the wrapped message — it names the specific invalid constraint definition
Fix or remove the offending column constraint in the CREATE/ALTER statement
Validate the DDL against the Cassandra version's supported constraint syntax
If coming from an upgrade path, update legacy schema definitions before announcing

Example fix

// before
CREATE TABLE t (k int PRIMARY KEY, v int WITH invalid_constraint_option);
// after
CREATE TABLE t (k int PRIMARY KEY, v int);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Validate constraints in a staging keyspace first: apply the DDL to a test table and catch InvalidRequestException before production announce.

Try / catch

try { schemaChange(ddl); } catch (InvalidRequestException e) { throw new SchemaValidationException("Invalid column constraint: " + e.getMessage(), e); }

Prevention

Validate DDL against the target Cassandra version before rollout
Test schema migrations on a staging cluster first
Avoid hand-writing constraint definitions; generate them from supported tooling
Keep migration tools and server versions aligned

When it happens

Trigger: Creating or altering a table (apply/announceNewTable/announceTableUpdate) whose column metadata fails SchemaConstraints/constraints.validate(columnMetadata) — e.g. an invalid column constraint definition in CREATE TABLE / ALTER TABLE.

Common situations: Hand-written DDL with malformed constraint options; migration tools generating unsupported constraint combinations; version upgrades where a previously tolerated constraint definition is now rejected.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fe0065115f0a0cf7. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/schema/TableMetadata.java:653

                    except("Cannot have a counter column (\"%s\") in a non counter table", column.name);
        }

        // All tables should have a partition key
        if (partitionKeyColumns.isEmpty())
            except("Missing partition keys for table %s", toString());

        indexes.validate(this);

        for (ColumnMetadata columnMetadata : columns())
        {
            ColumnConstraints constraints = columnMetadata.getColumnConstraints();
            try
            {
                constraints.validate(columnMetadata);
            }
            catch (InvalidConstraintDefinitionException e)
            {
                throw new InvalidRequestException(e.getMessage(), e);
            }
        }

        require((params.transactionalMode == TransactionalMode.off && params.transactionalMigrationFrom == TransactionalMigrationFromMode.none) || !isCounter(), "Counters are not supported with Accord for table " + this);
    }

    private void validateTableName()
    {
        if (!isValidCharsName(name))
            except("Table name must not be empty or not contain non-alphanumeric-underscore characters (got \"%s\")", name);

        if (name.length() > TABLE_NAME_LENGTH)
            except("Table name must not be more than %d characters long (got %d characters for \"%s\")", TABLE_NAME_LENGTH, name.length(), name);

        assert getTableDirectoryName().length() <= FILENAME_LENGTH : String.format("Generated directory name for a table of %d characters doesn't fit the max filename legnth of %s. This unexpectedly wasn't prevented by check of the table name length, %d, to fit %d characters (got table name \"%s\" and generated directory name \"%s\"", getTableDirectoryName().length(), FILENAME_LENGTH, name.length(), TABLE_NAME_LENGTH, name, getTableDirectoryName());
    }

    /**

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