apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

The duration must have a day precision. Was

Error message

The duration must have a day precision. Was: %s

What it means

SimpleDateType models the CQL 'date' type, whose smallest unit is a day. When a duration value is validated for a date column, the duration must have day precision (no hours/minutes/seconds/nanos components); otherwise Cassandra rejects the write with this invalid-request error.

Solutions

1. Change the duration literal so it only contains day (and larger) components, e.g. use P1D instead of P1DT12H.
2. If sub-day precision is needed, change the column type to 'duration' or 'timestamp' instead of 'date'.
3. On the client, normalize the Duration by dropping time components before binding (verify with duration.hasDayPrecision()).

Example fix

// before
INSERT INTO events (day, lag) VALUES ('2024-01-01', P1DT12H);
// after
INSERT INTO events (day, lag) VALUES ('2024-01-01', P1D);

// Java (driver): verify day precision before binding a duration to a date column
if (!duration.hasDayPrecision())
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Duration must have day precision for date columns: " + duration);

try {
    session.execute(insert.bind(duration));
} catch (InvalidQueryException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("day precision")) {
        // normalize and retry with day-only duration
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Inserting or binding a Duration value into a 'date' column (e.g. via CQL literal like P1DT12H, or a driver Duration/ByteBuffer binding) where duration.hasDayPrecision() is false — i.e. the duration contains sub-day components.

Common situations: Developers mistaking the CQL 'duration' type semantics for 'date' arithmetic and inserting a duration like PT12H or P1DT2H into a date column; driver users constructing Durations with time components; migrating data that had time-of-day below days.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid duration" / "failed to parse duration": why your timeout, interval, or TTL string is rejected and which formats each library accepts — this error's family across 32 libraries.

Related errors

• The duration must have a millisecond precision. Was
• Argument ' ' cannot be frozen; remove frozen<> modifier from
• duration type is not supported for PRIMARY KEY column
• Durations are not allowed as map keys:
• Durations are not allowed as map keys

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4d57d0422929f0c5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/marshal/SimpleDateType.java:119

    }

    @Override
    public CQL3Type asCQL3Type()
    {
        return CQL3Type.Native.DATE;
    }

    public TypeSerializer<Integer> getSerializer()
    {
        return SimpleDateSerializer.instance;
    }

    @Override
    protected void validateDuration(Duration duration)
    {
        // Checks that the duration has no data below days.
        if (!duration.hasDayPrecision())
            throw invalidRequest("The duration must have a day precision. Was: %s", duration);
    }

    @Override
    public ByteBuffer getMaskedValue()
    {
        return MASKED_VALUE;
    }
}

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