apache/cassandra · error · IllegalArgumentException

Options to normalize terms cannot be both uppercase and lowe

Error message

Options to normalize terms cannot be both uppercase and lowercase at the same time

What it means

NonTokenizingOptions.Builder.build() enforces that case-normalization is one-directional: lowerCaseOutput and upperCaseOutput cannot both be true. Setting both is contradictory, so the builder throws IllegalArgumentException before constructing the options object.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/index/sasi/analyzer/NonTokenizingOptions.java:93

            return this;
        }

        public OptionsBuilder upperCaseOutput(boolean upperCaseOutput)
        {
            this.upperCaseOutput = upperCaseOutput;
            return this;
        }

        public OptionsBuilder lowerCaseOutput(boolean lowerCaseOutput)
        {
            this.lowerCaseOutput = lowerCaseOutput;
            return this;
        }

        public NonTokenizingOptions build()
        {
            if (lowerCaseOutput && upperCaseOutput)
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Options to normalize terms cannot be " +
                        "both uppercase and lowercase at the same time");

            NonTokenizingOptions options = new NonTokenizingOptions();
            options.setCaseSensitive(caseSensitive);
            options.setUpperCaseOutput(upperCaseOutput);
            options.setLowerCaseOutput(lowerCaseOutput);
            return options;
        }
    }

    public static NonTokenizingOptions buildFromMap(Map<String, String> optionsMap)
    {
        OptionsBuilder optionsBuilder = new OptionsBuilder();

        for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : optionsMap.entrySet())
        {
            switch (entry.getKey())
            {

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

Set only one of lowercase/uppercase output to true
Default: leave both false to keep original casing
Guard the flags before building

Example fix

// before
builder.setLowercaseOutput(true).setUppercaseOutput(true).build();
// after
builder.setLowercaseOutput(true).setUppercaseOutput(false).build();

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (lowerCaseOutput && upperCaseOutput) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Choose only one of lowercase/uppercase normalization");

Try / catch

try { NonTokenizingOptions opts = builder.build(); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("both uppercase and lowercase")) { builder.setUppercaseOutput(false); NonTokenizingOptions opts = builder.build(); } }

Prevention

Treat lowercase/uppercase normalization flags as mutually exclusive
Use a single enum (NONE|LOWER|UPPER) in your own config layer

When it happens

Trigger: Calling new NonTokenizingOptions.Builder().setLowercaseOutput(true).setUppercaseOutput(true).build(), or building options from a map where both normalize_lowercase and normalize_uppercase are 'true'.

Common situations: Programmatically merging option maps where two sources each set a different normalization flag, or misreading the flags as independent booleans.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/66fab0fef9380253. Report an issue: GitHub.