apache/iceberg · error · UnsupportedOperationException

Cannot convert Spark geography with mixed SRID to Iceberg

Error message

Cannot convert Spark geography with mixed SRID to Iceberg

What it means

Same as the geometry case: Spark's GeographyType maps to Iceberg's geography type only when it has a single SRID. A Spark geography with mixed SRID cannot be represented in Iceberg, so type conversion throws UnsupportedOperationException.

Source

Thrown at spark/v4.1/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/SparkTypeToType.java:180

    } else if (atomic instanceof TimestampNTZType) {
      return Types.TimestampType.withoutZone();

    } else if (atomic instanceof DecimalType) {
      return Types.DecimalType.of(
          ((DecimalType) atomic).precision(), ((DecimalType) atomic).scale());
    } else if (atomic instanceof BinaryType) {
      return Types.BinaryType.get();
    } else if (atomic instanceof GeometryType) {
      GeometryType geometry = (GeometryType) atomic;
      if (geometry.isMixedSrid()) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException(
            "Cannot convert Spark geometry with mixed SRID to Iceberg");
      }
      return Types.GeometryType.of(geometry.crs());
    } else if (atomic instanceof GeographyType) {
      GeographyType geography = (GeographyType) atomic;
      if (geography.isMixedSrid()) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException(
            "Cannot convert Spark geography with mixed SRID to Iceberg");
      }
      return Types.GeographyType.of(geography.crs(), convertAlgorithm(geography.algorithm()));
    } else if (atomic instanceof NullType) {
      return Types.UnknownType.get();
    }

    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not a supported type: " + atomic.catalogString());
  }

  // Translates Spark's edge-interpolation algorithm to Iceberg's, mirroring
  // TypeToSparkType#convertAlgorithm. Spark supports only the spherical algorithm today; anything
  // else is rejected loudly rather than silently defaulting, so a new Spark algorithm surfaces here
  // instead of being dropped.
  private static EdgeAlgorithm convertAlgorithm(EdgeInterpolationAlgorithm algorithm) {
    switch (algorithm.toString().toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT)) {
      case "SPHERICAL":
        return EdgeAlgorithm.SPHERICAL;

View on GitHub (pinned to 86d9c8fc54)

Solutions

1. Ensure the geography column has one consistent SRID at the source
2. Re-project all geographies to a single SRID before conversion
3. Drop the geography column from the schema being converted or store it as binary with explicit handling

Example fix

// before
SparkSchemaUtil.convert(schemaWithMixedSridGeography);
// after: normalize SRID upstream
val fixed = df.withColumn("geo", ST_SetSRID(col("geo"), 4326));

org.apache.spark.sql.types.GeographyType g = (GeographyType) dataType;
if (g.isMixedSrid()) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Geography column must have a single SRID before Iceberg conversion");

boolean isMixedSridGeography(DataType t) { return t instanceof GeographyType && ((GeographyType) t).isMixedSrid(); }

try { convert(schema); } catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("mixed SRID")) { /* normalize SRID */ } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Converting a Spark schema containing a GeographyType column with isMixedSrid() == true to an Iceberg Type (SparkSchemaUtil.convert, Iceberg scans/writes involving that column).

Common situations: Geography columns assembled from sources with differing SRIDs, or geo connectors that leave SRID unset so Spark reports mixed SRID.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot convert Spark geography with mixed SRID to Iceberg
• Cannot convert Spark geometry with mixed SRID to Iceberg
• Iceberg does not support Spark geography edge algorithm:
• Cannot convert Spark geometry with mixed SRID to Iceberg
• Spark does not support geography edge algorithm:

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f5e9201bdd5898b6. Report an issue: GitHub.