What causes "Range deletion is not supported by table %s" in apache/cassandra?

Delete fully-specified rows instead of ranges (applyRowDeletion may be supported).

apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

Range deletion is not supported by table

Error message

Range deletion is not supported by table %s

What it means

AbstractMutableVirtualTable's default applyRangeTombstone throws this invalid-request error: deleting a clustering range within a partition is not supported unless the concrete virtual table overrides the method.

Solutions

Delete fully-specified rows instead of ranges (applyRowDeletion may be supported).
Enumerate the clustering keys and delete rows individually or with IN.
If you implement the table, override applyRangeTombstone(ColumnValues, Range<ColumnValues>).

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

try {
    session.execute(slicedDelete);
} catch (InvalidQueryException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("Range deletion is not supported")) {
        // enumerate clustering keys and delete rows individually
    }
}

Prevention

Replace '>'/'<' range DELETE predicates with explicit key lists or per-row deletes.
Select the keys first and delete rows one by one when range deletes are unsupported.
Consult the virtual table source/docs to see whether applyRangeTombstone is overridden.

When it happens

Trigger: Executing a DELETE with a clustering range condition, e.g. 'DELETE FROM <virtual_table> WHERE pk = ? AND ck > ? AND ck <= ?', which the coordinator translates into a range tombstone applied via applyRangeTombstone(ColumnValues, Range<ColumnValues>).

Common situations: Range-based cleanup of virtual-table rows; ORMs generating sliced DELETEs; interactive cqlsh sessions deleting ranges of metric-like rows.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e2d8aa093ead81cb. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/virtual/AbstractMutableVirtualTable.java:145

            return Range.downTo(ColumnValues.from(metadata(), startBound), boundType(startBound));

        ColumnValues start = ColumnValues.from(metadata(), startBound);
        BoundType startType = boundType(startBound);

        ColumnValues end = ColumnValues.from(metadata(), endBound);
        BoundType endType = boundType(endBound);

        return Range.range(start, startType, end, endType);
    }

    private static BoundType boundType(ClusteringBound<?> bound)
    {
        return bound.isInclusive() ? BoundType.CLOSED : BoundType.OPEN;
    }

    protected void applyRangeTombstone(ColumnValues partitionKey, Range<ColumnValues> range)
    {
        throw invalidRequest("Range deletion is not supported by table %s", metadata);
    }

    protected void applyRowDeletion(ColumnValues partitionKey, ColumnValues clusteringColumns)
    {
        throw invalidRequest("Row deletion is not supported by table %s", metadata);
    }

    protected void applyColumnDeletion(ColumnValues partitionKey, ColumnValues clusteringColumns, String columnName)
    {
        throw invalidRequest("Column deletion is not supported by table %s", metadata);
    }

    protected void applyColumnUpdate(ColumnValues partitionKey,
                                     ColumnValues clusteringColumns,
                                     Optional<ColumnValue> columnValue)
    {
        throw invalidRequest("Column modification is not supported by table %s", metadata);
    }

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