apache/iceberg · error · UnsupportedOperationException

Unsupported timestamp type: ${timestamps}

Error message

Unsupported timestamp type: ${timestamps}

What it means

LogicalTypeWriterBuilder.visit(TimestampLogicalTypeAnnotation) supports NANOS and MICROS units; any other timestamp unit falls to the default and throws UnsupportedOperationException. Parquet timestamps are only expected in micro or nano precision.

Source

Thrown at flink/v1.20/flink/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/flink/data/FlinkParquetWriters.java:263

      Preconditions.checkArgument(
          LogicalTypeAnnotation.TimeUnit.MICROS.equals(times.getUnit()),
          "Cannot write time in %s, only MICROS is supported",
          times.getUnit());
      return Optional.of(timeMicros(desc));
    }

    @Override
    public Optional<ParquetValueWriter<?>> visit(TimestampLogicalTypeAnnotation timestamps) {
      ParquetValueWriter<TimestampData> writer;
      switch (timestamps.getUnit()) {
        case NANOS:
          writer = timestampNanos(desc);
          break;
        case MICROS:
          writer = timestamps(desc);
          break;
        default:
          throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Unsupported timestamp type: " + timestamps);
      }

      return Optional.of(writer);
    }

    @Override
    public Optional<ParquetValueWriter<?>> visit(IntLogicalTypeAnnotation type) {
      Preconditions.checkArgument(type.isSigned(), "Cannot write unsigned integer type: %s", type);
      ParquetValueWriter<?> writer;
      if (type.getBitWidth() < 64) {
        writer = ints(flinkType, desc);
      } else {
        writer = ParquetValueWriters.longs(desc);
      }

      return Optional.of(writer);
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 86d9c8fc54)

Solutions

1. Rewrite the data with timestamp columns in MICROS or NANOS units (standard for Iceberg).
2. Upgrade the parquet-column/parquet-hadoop dependencies to versions that only produce MICROS/NANOS annotations.
3. Drop the timestamp annotation or cast the column to a plain int64 if sub-second semantics are not needed.
4. Inspect the file schema with parquet-tools to confirm the actual TimeUnit before patching Iceberg.

Example fix

// before: column annotated as TIMESTAMP(MILLIS)
// after: rewrite with standard precision
// Schema: required int64 ts (TIMESTAMP(MICROS,true))

if (ann instanceof TimestampLogicalTypeAnnotation ts &&
    ts.getUnit() != TimeUnit.MICROS && ts.getUnit() != TimeUnit.NANOS) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("unsupported ts unit: " + ts.getUnit());
}

try {
  writer = ...build();
} catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Unsupported timestamp type:")) {
    // convert column to micros/nanos and retry
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: A Parquet column with a timestamp logical type annotation whose TimeUnit is neither MICROS nor NANOS (e.g. MILLIS from a non-standard producer or a newer parquet library unit).

Common situations: Parquet files written by older or non-conforming libraries that used millisecond timestamp annotations; version skew between parquet-column and parquet-avro jars introducing new TimeUnit values; hand-built schemas.

Related errors

• Unsupported timestamp type: ${timestamps}
• Unsupported logical type: ${primitive.getOriginalType()}
• Unsupported type: ${primitive}
• Unsupported base type for decimal: ${primitiveTypeName}
• Unsupported ZonedTimestampType.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1f3efd026ec2f6e4. Report an issue: GitHub.