apache/iceberg · error · IcebergAnalysisException

ALTER TABLE has no changes: missing both distribution and…

Error message

ALTER TABLE has no changes: missing both distribution and ordering clauses

What it means

When handling ALTER TABLE ... WRITE (DISTRIBUTED|ORDERED) statements, the AstBuilder requires at least one of a distribution clause or an ordering clause. If the WRITE spec contains neither, it throws this IcebergAnalysisException because the statement would be a no-op.

Solutions

1. Add a distribution clause, e.g. `ALTER TABLE t WRITE DISTRIBUTED BY PARTITION`.
2. Or add an ordering clause, e.g. `ALTER TABLE t WRITE ORDERED BY col`.
3. Or combine both: `ALTER TABLE t WRITE ORDERED BY col` with DISTRIBUTED as needed.
4. If no change is intended, drop the ALTER TABLE statement entirely.

Example fix

-- before
ALTER TABLE catalog.db.t WRITE
-- after
ALTER TABLE catalog.db.t WRITE ORDERED BY id

-- ensure at least one clause exists before executing
-- valid: ALTER TABLE t WRITE DISTRIBUTED BY PARTITION
-- valid: ALTER TABLE t WRITE ORDERED BY id
-- invalid: ALTER TABLE t WRITE

When it happens

Trigger: Running `ALTER TABLE t WRITE` (or a form where both distribution and ordering clauses are absent/empty), leaving the statement without any spec to apply.

Common situations: Incomplete SQL after copy-paste truncation, templated SQL where the clause variables were empty, or misunderstanding that `WRITE` alone changes nothing.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• ALTER TABLE contains multiple distribution clauses
• ALTER TABLE contains multiple ordering clauses
• ALTER TABLE contains multiple distribution clauses
• ALTER TABLE contains multiple distribution clauses
• ALTER TABLE contains multiple distribution clauses

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/774b13453cf4014c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at spark/v4.1/spark-extensions/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/parser/extensions/IcebergSqlExtensionsAstBuilder.scala:230

  override def visitDropIdentifierFields(ctx: DropIdentifierFieldsContext): DropIdentifierFields =
    withOrigin(ctx) {
      DropIdentifierFields(
        typedVisit[Seq[String]](ctx.multipartIdentifier),
        toSeq(ctx.fieldList.fields).map(_.getText))
    }

  /**
   * Create a [[SetWriteDistributionAndOrdering]] for changing the write distribution and ordering.
   */
  override def visitSetWriteDistributionAndOrdering(
      ctx: SetWriteDistributionAndOrderingContext): SetWriteDistributionAndOrdering = {

    val tableName = typedVisit[Seq[String]](ctx.multipartIdentifier)

    val (distributionSpec, orderingSpec) = toDistributionAndOrderingSpec(ctx.writeSpec)

    if (distributionSpec == null && orderingSpec == null) {
      throw new IcebergAnalysisException(
        "ALTER TABLE has no changes: missing both distribution and ordering clauses")
    }

    val distributionMode = if (distributionSpec != null) {
      Some(DistributionMode.HASH)
    } else if (orderingSpec.UNORDERED != null) {
      Some(DistributionMode.NONE)
    } else if (orderingSpec.LOCALLY() != null) {
      None
    } else {
      Some(DistributionMode.RANGE)
    }

    val ordering = if (orderingSpec != null && orderingSpec.order != null) {
      toSeq(orderingSpec.order.fields).map(typedVisit[(Term, SortDirection, NullOrder)])
    } else {
      Seq.empty
    }

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