apache/iceberg · error · ParquetDecodingException

Can't read value in column %s at value %d out of %d in curre

Error message

Can't read value in column %s at value %d out of %d in current page. repetition level: %d, definition level: %d

What it means

Generic decoding failure wrapper: when a runtime exception occurs while reading a value and it is not attributable to PARQUET-246, PageIterator rethrows it as ParquetDecodingException describing the column, the value index within the page, and the current repetition/definition levels. This pinpoints where in the page decoding broke.

Source

Thrown at parquet/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/parquet/PageIterator.java:225

    if (CorruptDeltaByteArrays.requiresSequentialReads(writerVersion, valueEncoding)
        && exception instanceof ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException) {
      // this is probably PARQUET-246, which may happen if reading data with
      // MR because this can't be detected without reading all footers
      throw new ParquetDecodingException(
          "Read failure possibly due to " + "PARQUET-246: try setting parquet.split.files to false",
          new ParquetDecodingException(
              String.format(
                  Locale.ROOT,
                  "Can't read value in column %s at value %d out of %d in current page. "
                      + "repetition level: %d, definition level: %d",
                  desc,
                  triplesRead,
                  triplesCount,
                  currentRL,
                  currentDL),
              exception));
    }
    throw new ParquetDecodingException(
        String.format(
            Locale.ROOT,
            "Can't read value in column %s at value %d out of %d in current page. "
                + "repetition level: %d, definition level: %d",
            desc,
            triplesRead,
            triplesCount,
            currentRL,
            currentDL),
        exception);
  }

  @Override
  protected void initDataReader(Encoding dataEncoding, ByteBufferInputStream in, int valueCount) {
    ValuesReader previousReader = values;

    this.valueEncoding = dataEncoding;

View on GitHub (pinned to 86d9c8fc54)

Solutions

1. Inspect the reported column and value index for file corruption; validate the file with parquet-tools
2. Re-read or rewrite the corrupted file from source
3. If caused by splitting, disable file splitting (see PARQUET-246)

Example fix

// before
// crash decoding corrupt file
// after
// validate and rewrite
// parquet-tools repair corrupt.parquet repaired.parquet

if (!ParquetFileReader.readFooter(conf, path).getFileMetaData().getSchema().equals(expectedSchema)) throw new IllegalStateException("Schema mismatch");

try {
  iterator.nextLong();
} catch (ParquetDecodingException e) {
  // message includes column, value index, RL/DL — log and quarantine file
  LOG.error("Decoding failed: {}", e.getMessage());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any RuntimeException surfaced from nextBoolean/nextInteger/nextLong/nextFloat/nextDouble/nextBinary that fails the PARQUET-246 check (e.g. IO problems, corrupt page buffers).

Common situations: Truncated or corrupt Parquet files; page data inconsistent with the page header's value counts; mismatched footer/split reads.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

• not a valid mode " + this.mode
• No more values to read. Total values read: " + valuesRead +
• Can not read min delta in current block
• Can not decode bitwidth in block header
• Read failure possibly due to PARQUET-246: try setting parque

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/17921586c92d3abf. Report an issue: GitHub.