apache/iceberg · error · IllegalArgumentException

Unsupported format in USING:

Error message

Unsupported format in USING: 

What it means

Thrown when a Spark CREATE TABLE ... USING clause specifies a provider other than iceberg, parquet, avro, or orc. rebuildCreateProperties maps the USING provider to the default file format; anything unrecognized (and not literally 'iceberg') is rejected.

Source

Thrown at spark/v4.0/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/Spark3Util.java:134

    newOptions.put(key, value);
    return new CaseInsensitiveStringMap(newOptions);
  }

  public static Map<String, String> rebuildCreateProperties(Map<String, String> createProperties) {
    ImmutableMap.Builder<String, String> tableProperties = ImmutableMap.builder();
    createProperties.entrySet().stream()
        .filter(entry -> !RESERVED_PROPERTIES.contains(entry.getKey()))
        .forEach(tableProperties::put);

    String provider = createProperties.get(TableCatalog.PROP_PROVIDER);
    if ("parquet".equalsIgnoreCase(provider)) {
      tableProperties.put(TableProperties.DEFAULT_FILE_FORMAT, "parquet");
    } else if ("avro".equalsIgnoreCase(provider)) {
      tableProperties.put(TableProperties.DEFAULT_FILE_FORMAT, "avro");
    } else if ("orc".equalsIgnoreCase(provider)) {
      tableProperties.put(TableProperties.DEFAULT_FILE_FORMAT, "orc");
    } else if (provider != null && !"iceberg".equalsIgnoreCase(provider)) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported format in USING: " + provider);
    }

    return tableProperties.build();
  }

  /**
   * Applies a list of Spark table changes to an {@link UpdateProperties} operation.
   *
   * @param pendingUpdate an uncommitted UpdateProperties operation to configure
   * @param changes a list of Spark table changes
   * @return the UpdateProperties operation configured with the changes
   */
  public static UpdateProperties applyPropertyChanges(
      UpdateProperties pendingUpdate, List<TableChange> changes) {
    for (TableChange change : changes) {
      if (change instanceof TableChange.SetProperty) {
        TableChange.SetProperty set = (TableChange.SetProperty) change;
        pendingUpdate.set(set.property(), set.value());

View on GitHub (pinned to 86d9c8fc54)

Solutions

1. Remove the USING clause (default is Iceberg)
2. Set USING iceberg explicitly
3. Use one of parquet/avro/orc if intending a specific file format

Example fix

-- before
CREATE TABLE t (id bigint) USING delta;
-- after
CREATE TABLE t (id bigint) USING iceberg;

String provider = providerFromSql(sql); if (provider != null && !List.of("iceberg","parquet","avro","orc").contains(provider.toLowerCase(Locale.ROOT))) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("Provider must be iceberg/parquet/avro/orc: " + provider); }

boolean isIcebergCompatibleProvider(String p) { return p == null || "iceberg".equalsIgnoreCase(p) || "parquet".equalsIgnoreCase(p) || "avro".equalsIgnoreCase(p) || "orc".equalsIgnoreCase(p); }

try { spark.sql(ddl); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Unsupported format in USING")) { spark.sql(ddl.replaceAll("(?i)USING\\s+\\S+", "USING iceberg")); } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Running CREATE TABLE ... USING <provider> where provider is e.g. 'delta', 'csv', 'json', or a typo like 'iceber'.

Common situations: Migrating Delta/other-format DDL to Iceberg without removing USING; typos in the provider; mixed-engine templates that default USING to another format.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• Unsupported format in USING: ${provider}
• Cannot add column %s since setting default values in Spark i
• Cannot convert type to SQL: %s
• Cannot convert bound predicates to SQL
• Cannot convert predicate to SQL: %s

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/492685d8c3b9e705. Report an issue: GitHub.