apache/cassandra · error · MarshalException

Value '%s' is not a valid representation of a varint value

Error message

Value '%s' is not a valid representation of a varint value

What it means

IntegerType.fromJSONObject() converts the parsed JSON value to a varint by doing new BigInteger(parsed.toString()); if that string is not a valid integer literal, NumberFormatException is caught and rethrown as this MarshalException. The input here may be a non-String JSON value (numbers, booleans, objects) whose toString() is not a valid BigInteger literal.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/marshal/IntegerType.java:482

        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            throw new MarshalException(String.format("unable to make int from '%s'", source), e);
        }

        return decompose(integerType);
    }

    @Override
    public Term fromJSONObject(Object parsed) throws MarshalException
    {
        try
        {
            return new Constants.Value(getSerializer().serialize(new BigInteger(parsed.toString())));
        }
        catch (NumberFormatException exc)
        {
            throw new MarshalException(String.format(
                    "Value '%s' is not a valid representation of a varint value", parsed));
        }
    }

    @Override
    public String toJSONString(ByteBuffer buffer, ProtocolVersion protocolVersion)
    {
        return Objects.toString(getSerializer().deserialize(buffer), "\"\"");
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isValueCompatibleWithInternal(AbstractType<?> otherType)
    {
        return this == otherType || Int32Type.instance.isValueCompatibleWith(otherType) || LongType.instance.isValueCompatibleWith(otherType);
    }

    public CQL3Type asCQL3Type()
    {

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Send the varint value as an integral JSON number or integer string
2. Use the decimal type for fractional values instead of varint
3. Validate that the value's toString() matches ^[+-]?\d+$ before calling fromJSONObject
4. Catch MarshalException and report the offending value

Example fix

// before
{"v": 3.14} // varint column
// after
{"v": 3}  // or change column to decimal for 3.14

if (!parsed.toString().matches("[+-]?\\d+"))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Not a valid varint representation: " + parsed);

static boolean isValidVarintJson(Object v) { return (v instanceof Number && !(v instanceof Double && ((Double) v != Math.floor((Double) v)))) || (v instanceof String && ((String) v).matches("[+-]?\\d+")); }

try { IntegerType.instance.fromJSONObject(parsed, pv); } catch (MarshalException e) { /* parsed.toString() not an integer literal; reject */ }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling IntegerType.instance.fromJSONObject(parsed, protocolVersion) where parsed.toString() is not a valid integer literal, e.g. parsed = 3.14 (Double -> "3.14") or parsed = true ("true"); the BigInteger constructor throws NumberFormatException.

Common situations: JSON payloads with floats destined for varint columns; boolean/nested-object values in varint fields; double-encoded JSON strings producing quoted literals like "\"123\"".

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

• Expected a float value, but got a %s: %s
• Expected a string representation of an inet value, but got a
• Expected an int value, but got a %s: %s
• unable to make int from '%s'
• Expected a UTF-8 string, but got a %s: %s

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f2a1a2650db05f42. Report an issue: GitHub.