apache/seatunnel · error · IllegalArgumentException

Only support sql: delete from ... where ..., Not support: {}

Error message

Only support sql: delete from ... where ..., Not support: {}

What it means

IcebergCatalog.executeSql only supports JSqlParser-parseable DELETE FROM ... WHERE statements; any other SQL syntax (or non-DELETE statements) fails to parse or fails the cast to Delete, so an IllegalArgumentException is thrown wrapping the offending SQL.

Source

Thrown at seatunnel-connectors-v2/connector-iceberg/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/connectors/seatunnel/iceberg/catalog/IcebergCatalog.java:231

            throw new TableNotExistException("table not exist", tablePath);
        }
        TableIdentifier icebergTableIdentifier = toIcebergTableIdentifier(tablePath);
        Snapshot snapshot = catalog.loadTable(icebergTableIdentifier).currentSnapshot();
        if (snapshot != null) {
            String total = snapshot.summary().getOrDefault("total-records", null);
            return total != null && !total.equals("0");
        }
        return false;
    }

    @Override
    public void executeSql(TablePath tablePath, String sql) {
        Delete delete;
        try {
            Statement statement = CCJSqlParserUtil.parse(sql);
            delete = (Delete) statement;
        } catch (Throwable e) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                    "Only support sql: delete from ... where ..., Not support: " + sql, e);
        }

        TablePath targetTablePath = TablePath.of(delete.getTable().getFullyQualifiedName(), false);
        if (targetTablePath.getDatabaseName() == null) {
            targetTablePath =
                    TablePath.of(tablePath.getDatabaseName(), targetTablePath.getTableName());
        }
        if (!targetTablePath.equals(tablePath)) {
            log.warn(
                    "The delete table {} is not equal to the target table {}",
                    targetTablePath,
                    tablePath);
        }

        TableIdentifier icebergTableIdentifier = toIcebergTableIdentifier(targetTablePath);
        Table table = catalog.loadTable(icebergTableIdentifier);
        Expression expression = ExpressionUtils.convert(delete.getWhere(), table.schema());

View on GitHub (pinned to cf67b549a7)

Solutions

  1. Rewrite the SQL as a simple 'DELETE FROM <table> WHERE <predicate>' statement.
  2. Use the Iceberg API directly instead of SQL: catalog.loadTable(id).newDelete().deleteFromRowFilter(Expressions.equal(...)).commit()
  3. Use truncateTable() when the intent is deleting all rows.
  4. Pre-validate the SQL shape (starts with 'delete from') before calling executeSql.

Example fix

// before
catalog.executeSql(path, "UPDATE t SET a = 1 WHERE id = 2");
// after
catalog.executeSql(path, "DELETE FROM t WHERE id = 2");
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (sql == null || !sql.trim().toLowerCase().startsWith("delete from")) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("executeSql only supports DELETE FROM ... WHERE: " + sql);
}

Try / catch

try { catalog.executeSql(path, sql); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { log.error("Unsupported SQL: {}", sql, e); }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling catalog.executeSql(tablePath, sql) with SQL that is not a DELETE statement (INSERT/UPDATE/SELECT/DDL), or a DELETE whose syntax JSqlParser cannot parse (dialect-specific functions, hints, comments, multi-table deletes).

Common situations: Users pass Hive/Spark-dialect DELETE syntax, pass other SQL statements expecting generic SQL execution, or use version-specific parser-incompatible syntax; also common when wiring generic SQL from user config.

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

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f82e6034fa994a5d. Report an issue: GitHub.