apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

Range queries are not supported. Please provide both a keysp

Error message

Range queries are not supported. Please provide both a keyspace and a table name.

What it means

The system_views.partitions virtual table requires a fully specified keyspace and table partition; arbitrary range scans are not implemented. The DataRange-based select() overload unconditionally throws InvalidRequestException with UNSUPPORTED_RANGE_QUERY_ERROR.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/virtual/PartitionKeyStatsTable.java:352

        }
        return Bounds.bounds(startToken.minKeyBound(), true, endToken.maxKeyBound(), true);
    }

    private static Cell<?> cell(ColumnMetadata column, ByteBuffer value)
    {
        return BufferCell.live(column, 1L, value);
    }

    @Override
    public TableMetadata metadata()
    {
        return this.metadata;
    }

    @Override
    public UnfilteredPartitionIterator select(DataRange dataRange, ColumnFilter columnFilter, RowFilter rowFilter, DataLimits limits)
    {
        throw new InvalidRequestException(UNSUPPORTED_RANGE_QUERY_ERROR);
    }

    @Override
    public void truncate()
    {
        throw new InvalidRequestException(TABLE_READ_ONLY_ERROR);
    }

    @Override
    public void apply(PartitionUpdate update)
    {
        throw new InvalidRequestException(TABLE_READ_ONLY_ERROR);
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

Always include equality predicates: `WHERE keyspace_name = 'ks' AND table_name = 't'`.
To enumerate tables, query system_schema.tables first, then query partitions per table.
Restrict further with token(...) bounds or key = for specific partitions.

Example fix

// before
SELECT * FROM system_views.partitions;
// after
SELECT * FROM system_views.partitions WHERE keyspace_name = 'ks' AND table_name = 'tbl';

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Require both equality predicates before querying the partitions virtual table
if (keyspaceName == null || tableName == null)
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("keyspace_name and table_name are required for system_views.partitions");

Try / catch

try { rs = session.execute(query); }
catch (com.datastax.oss.driver.api.core.servererrors.InvalidQueryException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("Range queries are not supported")) { /* add keyspace/table predicates and retry */ }
    else throw e;
}

Prevention

Always filter system_views.partitions by keyspace_name AND table_name equality.
Enumerate tables via system_schema.tables first, then query per table.
Never issue unbounded SELECTs against virtual tables.

When it happens

Trigger: Querying system_views.partitions without both keyspace_name and table_name equality restrictions, e.g. `SELECT * FROM system_views.partitions;` or filtering only by token.

Common situations: Exploratory queries without WHERE clauses; dashboards listing all partitions; drivers issuing unrestricted scans over virtual tables.

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/f19f5cf0adb5d246. Report an issue: GitHub.