apache/flink · error · UnsupportedOperationException

Unsupported type: {}

Error message

Unsupported type: {}

What it means

ParquetRowDataWriter.createWriter throws for primitive LogicalTypes it has no writer for (the switch's default branch). The writer covers CHAR, VARCHAR, BOOLEAN, INT families, BIGINT, FLOAT, DOUBLE and timestamps; anything else falling into the primitive case is unsupported.

Source

Thrown at flink-formats/flink-parquet/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/formats/parquet/row/ParquetRowDataWriter.java:146

                    return new ShortWriter();
                case DATE:
                case TIME_WITHOUT_TIME_ZONE:
                case INTEGER:
                    return new IntWriter();
                case BIGINT:
                    return new LongWriter();
                case FLOAT:
                    return new FloatWriter();
                case DOUBLE:
                    return new DoubleWriter();
                case TIMESTAMP_WITHOUT_TIME_ZONE:
                    TimestampType timestampType = (TimestampType) t;
                    return new TimestampWriter(timestampType.getPrecision());
                case TIMESTAMP_WITH_LOCAL_TIME_ZONE:
                    LocalZonedTimestampType localZonedTimestampType = (LocalZonedTimestampType) t;
                    return new TimestampWriter(localZonedTimestampType.getPrecision());
                default:
                    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Unsupported type: " + type);
            }
        } else {
            GroupType groupType = type.asGroupType();
            LogicalTypeAnnotation logicalType = type.getLogicalTypeAnnotation();

            if (t instanceof ArrayType
                    && logicalType instanceof LogicalTypeAnnotation.ListLogicalTypeAnnotation) {
                return new ArrayWriter(((ArrayType) t).getElementType(), groupType);
            } else if (t instanceof MapType
                    && logicalType instanceof LogicalTypeAnnotation.MapLogicalTypeAnnotation) {
                return new MapWriter(
                        ((MapType) t).getKeyType(), ((MapType) t).getValueType(), groupType);
            } else if (t instanceof MultisetType
                    && logicalType instanceof LogicalTypeAnnotation.MapLogicalTypeAnnotation) {
                return new MapWriter(
                        ((MultisetType) t).getElementType(), new IntType(false), groupType);
            } else if (t instanceof RowType && type instanceof GroupType) {
                return new RowWriter((RowType) t, groupType);

View on GitHub (pinned to 2f3c205e92)

Solutions

1. Inspect the reported type in the message; normalize it to a supported Flink LogicalType before writing
2. Cast/convert the column upstream (e.g. in SQL: CAST(col AS <supported type>))
3. Ensure you pass standard planner-produced RowData schemas, not hand-built LogicalType instances

static boolean isSupportedPrimitive(LogicalType t) {
  switch (t.getTypeRoot()) {
    case CHAR: case VARCHAR: case BOOLEAN: case TINYINT: case SMALLINT:
    case INTEGER: case BIGINT: case FLOAT: case DOUBLE:
    case TIMESTAMP_WITHOUT_TIME_ZONE: case TIMESTAMP_WITH_LOCAL_TIME_ZONE:
      return true;
    default: return false;
  }
}

try { writer.write(row); } catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) { if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Unsupported type")) { /* normalize/drop the offending column, rebuild writer */ } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Writing a RowData whose primitive column type is outside the handled set - most commonly a distinct type not normalized, or future/new LogicalTypes hitting the default branch of the primitive switch.

Common situations: Custom LogicalType subclasses passed through instead of standard table types; type mismatches where a DECIMAL/DATE/TIME is unexpectedly routed (these are handled elsewhere, but a non-standard variant reaches the default).

Related errors

• Time unit not recognized
• Unsupported type: {}
• Error while waiting for job to be initialized
• Translator {} cannot translate the given pipeline {}.
• Could not get job jar and dependencies from JAR file: {}

AI-assisted analysis of apache/flink@2f3c205e92 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2052a44db0af087e. Report an issue: GitHub.