What causes "%s" in apache/cassandra?

Read the wrapped message for the exact syntax or validation problem and fix the CQL string.

apache/cassandra · error · IllegalArgumentException

%s

Error message

%s

What it means

In the same parseStatement method, when the CQL string cannot be parsed at all (ANTLR RecognitionException) or fails semantic validation (RequestValidationException, e.g. unknown table/column, bad syntax), the method rethrows it as an IllegalArgumentException whose message is the underlying parser/validator message. The '%s' in the catalog is the dynamic parser message; it tells the developer exactly what part of the CQL was invalid.

Source

Thrown at tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/StressCQLSSTableWriter.java:723

            return insert;
        }
    }

    public static <T extends CQLStatement.Raw> T parseStatement(String query, Class<T> klass, String type)
    {
        try
        {
            CQLStatement.Raw stmt = CQLFragmentParser.parseAnyUnhandled(CqlParser::query, query);

            if (!stmt.getClass().equals(klass))
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid query, must be a " + type + " statement but was: " + stmt.getClass());

            return klass.cast(stmt);
        }
        catch (RecognitionException | RequestValidationException e)
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(e.getMessage(), e);
        }
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

Read the wrapped message for the exact syntax or validation problem and fix the CQL string.
Validate the CQL in cqlsh or a CQL editor before embedding it in the stress tool.
Ensure the keyspace and table exist and are spelled correctly (case-sensitive quoted identifiers).
Catch IllegalArgumentException around writer construction and log e.getCause() (the original RequestValidationException) for full details.

Example fix

// before
String cql = "INSERT INTO ks.t (k, v) VALUES (?, ?"; // missing ')'
// after
String cql = "INSERT INTO ks.t (k, v) VALUES (?, ?)";

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (cql == null || cql.trim().isEmpty())
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("CQL string must be non-empty");
// optionally pre-validate with a parser or cqlsh dry-run

Try / catch

try {
    writer = StressCQLSSTableWriter.builder(schema, cql).build();
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    Throwable cause = e.getCause();
    if (cause instanceof RequestValidationException)
        throw new IllegalStateException("Invalid CQL: " + cause.getMessage(), cause);
    throw e;
}

Prevention

Validate CQL in cqlsh before embedding it in stress profiles.
Use fully-qualified keyspace.table names in stress CQL.
Keep placeholders (?) consistent with bind ordering in the writer loop.
Pin schema changes and re-check stress profiles after migrations.

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a syntactically invalid CQL string (bad syntax, missing parentheses, wrong placeholders) or a semantically invalid one (unknown keyspace/table/column, invalid type usage) to StressCQLSSTableWriter.parseStatement, causing CQLFragmentParser.parseAnyUnhandled to throw RecognitionException or RequestValidationException.

Common situations: Typo in table or column names; forgetting to add the keyspace or using one that does not exist; CQL that is valid interactively but invalid here (e.g. empty string); copy-pasted CQL containing cqlsh-only directives.

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/8186ec7bb6173f6c. Report an issue: GitHub.