apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

The duration must have a millisecond precision. Was

Error message

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

What it means

TimestampType stores instants with millisecond precision. When a duration value is validated for a timestamp column, the duration must have millisecond precision; durations with precision finer than milliseconds (micro/nanoseconds) are rejected with this invalid-request error.

Solutions

1. Round or truncate the duration to whole milliseconds before binding (e.g. Duration.ofMillis(d.toMillis())).
2. Adjust the literal to millisecond precision, e.g. PT0.123S instead of PT0.123456S.
3. If sub-millisecond precision is required, store the value as a different type (e.g. duration or a custom encoding).

Example fix

// before
Duration d = Duration.ofNanos(1_500_123L);
stmt.set(0, d); // rejected
// after
stmt.set(0, Duration.ofMillis(d.toMillis()));

// Java (driver): ensure millisecond precision before binding to a timestamp column
if (!duration.hasMillisecondPrecision())
    duration = Duration.ofMillis(duration.toMillis()); // truncate to milliseconds

try {
    session.execute(stmt.bind(duration));
} catch (InvalidQueryException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("millisecond precision")) {
        // truncate duration to millis and retry
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Inserting or binding a Duration into a 'timestamp' column where duration.hasMillisecondPrecision() is false — i.e. the duration includes sub-millisecond components (nanos not a multiple of 1,000,000).

Common situations: Clients generating durations from java.time with nanosecond resolution (e.g. Duration.ofNanos) and binding them to timestamp columns; migrating high-resolution timing data from other systems into Cassandra timestamps.

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 day precision. Was
• Argument ' ' cannot be frozen; remove frozen<> modifier from
• Cannot provide custom timestamp for a BATCH containing…
• duration type is not supported for PRIMARY KEY column
• Durations are not allowed as map keys:

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d85df4fd4b8892e9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/marshal/TimestampType.java:173

    {
        return this == otherType || otherType == DateType.instance || otherType == LongType.instance;
    }

    public CQL3Type asCQL3Type()
    {
        return CQL3Type.Native.TIMESTAMP;
    }

    public TypeSerializer<Date> getSerializer()
    {
        return TimestampSerializer.instance;
    }

    @Override
    protected void validateDuration(Duration duration)
    {
        if (!duration.hasMillisecondPrecision())
            throw invalidRequest("The duration must have a millisecond precision. Was: %s", duration);
    }

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

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