apache/cassandra · error · IllegalArgumentException

There was a problem parsing the keyspace cql: %s

Error message

There was a problem parsing the keyspace cql: %s

What it means

StressProfile.init validates the optional keyspace_definition CQL by parsing it with CqlParser::createKeyspaceStatement; a RecognitionException or SyntaxException is converted to IllegalArgumentException "There was a problem parsing the keyspace cql: <message>". This means the keyspace CQL in the stress profile is syntactically invalid or is not a CREATE KEYSPACE statement. A related assert also fails if the parsed keyspace name does not match the profile's keyspace property.

Source

Thrown at tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/StressProfile.java:217

        assert keyspaceName != null : "keyspace name is required in yaml file";
        assert tableName != null : "table name is required in yaml file";
        assert queries != null : "queries map is required in yaml file";

        for (String query : queries.keySet())
            assert !tokenRangeQueries.containsKey(query) :
                String.format("Found %s in both queries and token_range_queries, please use different names", query);

        if (keyspaceCql != null && keyspaceCql.length() > 0)
        {
            try
            {
                String name = CQLFragmentParser.parseAnyUnhandled(CqlParser::createKeyspaceStatement, keyspaceCql).keyspaceName;
                assert name.equalsIgnoreCase(keyspaceName) : "Name in keyspace_definition doesn't match keyspace property: '" + name + "' != '" + keyspaceName + "'";
            }
            catch (RecognitionException | SyntaxException e)
            {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("There was a problem parsing the keyspace cql: " + e.getMessage());
            }
        }
        else
        {
            keyspaceCql = null;
        }

        if (tableCql != null && tableCql.length() > 0)
        {
            try
            {
                String name = CQLFragmentParser.parseAnyUnhandled(CqlParser::createTableStatement, tableCql).table();
                assert name.equalsIgnoreCase(tableName) : "Name in table_definition doesn't match table property: '" + name + "' != '" + tableName + "'";
            }
            catch (RecognitionException | RuntimeException e)
            {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("There was a problem parsing the table cql: " + e.getMessage());
            }

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Read the embedded parse message to locate the syntax error and fix the CQL in keyspace_definition.
2. Ensure the definition contains exactly one CREATE KEYSPACE statement whose name equals the profile's keyspace property.
3. Check YAML block-scalar indentation so the whole CQL reaches the parser as one string.
4. Test the CQL against the target Cassandra version's cqlsh to confirm it parses there.

Example fix

// before (profile YAML)
keyspace_definition: |
  CREATE KEYSPCE ks WITH replication = {'class': 'SimpleStrategy'};
// after
keyspace_definition: |
  CREATE KEYSPACE ks WITH replication = {'class': 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': 1};

String cql = profile.keyspaceDefinition; if (cql == null || !cql.trim().toUpperCase().startsWith("CREATE KEYSPACE")) throw new IllegalArgumentException("keyspace_definition must be a single CREATE KEYSPACE statement matching keyspace: " + profile.keyspace);

try { profile.init(stressSettings); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { if (e.getMessage().startsWith("There was a problem parsing the keyspace cql")) System.err.println("Fix keyspace_definition in your stress profile YAML: " + e.getMessage()); throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Providing a keyspace_definition in the stress profile whose CQL has syntax errors, uses grammar unsupported by the bundled parser version, or declares a different keyspace name than the profile's keyspace property (assertion path).

Common situations: Copy-pasted keyspace DDL with trailing statements or stray semicolons; using CQL features newer than the bundled ANTLR parser; mismatch between 'keyspace:' and the name in keyspace_definition; YAML indentation mangling the multi-line CQL string.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

Related errors

• There was a problem parsing the table cql: %s
• Invalid or malformed
• (dynamic first syntax error message from parser/lexer)
• Could not decode JSON string as a map: %s. (String was: %s)
• Unable to convert '%s' to a duration

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2ab0a6d64016b52b. Report an issue: GitHub.