apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

No PRIMARY KEY specifed for table

Error message

No PRIMARY KEY specifed for table '%s' (exactly one required)

What it means

The raw CREATE TABLE statement was prepared without any PRIMARY KEY clause, so partitionKeyColumns is null. Every Cassandra table requires exactly one PRIMARY KEY definition; without it the storage layout is undefined, so preparation fails. Note the message contains a long-standing typo ('specifed').

Solutions

Add a PRIMARY KEY clause to the CREATE TABLE statement, e.g. PRIMARY KEY (a)
If using the raw builder API, call setPartitionKeyColumns(...) before prepare()

Example fix

// before
CREATE TABLE t (a int, b text);
// after
CREATE TABLE t (a int, b text, PRIMARY KEY (a));

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (!/PRIMARY\s+KEY/i.test(ddl)) throw new Error('CREATE TABLE requires a PRIMARY KEY');

Try / catch

try { session.execute(ddl); } catch (e) { if (/No PRIMARY KEY/.test(e.message)) { /* re-generate DDL with PRIMARY KEY clause */ } else throw e; }

Prevention

Always include PRIMARY KEY in every CREATE TABLE
In DDL generators, assert the key clause is appended unconditionally
Lint CQL files for missing PRIMARY KEY

When it happens

Trigger: Executing CREATE TABLE keyspace.tbl (a int, b text) with no PRIMARY KEY clause at all.

Common situations: Hand-written DDL omitting PRIMARY KEY; programmatic schema generation where the key clause is appended conditionally and skipped; copying table definitions and dropping the key line.

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

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/aba3d5eb20cde19e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cql3/statements/schema/CreateTableStatement.java:586

        private final Map<ColumnIdentifier, ColumnConstraints> columnConstraints = new HashMap<>();

        private List<ColumnIdentifier> partitionKeyColumns;

        private final LinkedHashMap<ColumnIdentifier, Boolean> clusteringOrder = new LinkedHashMap<>();
        public final TableAttributes attrs = new TableAttributes();

        public Raw(QualifiedName name, boolean ifNotExists)
        {
            this.name = name;
            this.ifNotExists = ifNotExists;
        }

        public CreateTableStatement prepare(ClientState state)
        {
            String keyspaceName = name.hasKeyspace() ? name.getKeyspace() : state.getKeyspace();

            if (null == partitionKeyColumns)
                throw ire("No PRIMARY KEY specifed for table '%s' (exactly one required)", name);

            return new CreateTableStatement(keyspaceName,
                                            name.getName(),
                                            rawColumns,
                                            staticColumns,
                                            partitionKeyColumns,
                                            clusteringColumns,
                                            columnConstraints,
                                            clusteringOrder,
                                            attrs,
                                            ifNotExists,
                                            useCompactStorage);
        }

        public String keyspace()
        {
            return name.getKeyspace();
        }

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