apache/seatunnel · error · java.lang.NullPointerException

Option not be null.

Error message

Option not be null.

What it means

While reading with POI, ExcelReadStrategy computes startRow = firstRowNum + skipHeaderNumber. If that start row is beyond the sheet's lastRowNum, there are no data rows left to read, and it throws FileConnectorException with UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION. It protects against a skip-header-row-number that exceeds the sheet's row count.

Source

Thrown at seatunnel-api/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/api/configuration/ReadonlyConfig.java:105

        return result;
    }

    public void toMap(Map<String, String> result) {
        if (confData.isEmpty()) {
            return;
        }
        for (Map.Entry<String, Object> entry : confData.entrySet()) {
            result.put(entry.getKey(), convertToJsonString(entry.getValue()));
        }
    }

    public Map<String, Object> getSourceMap() {
        return confData;
    }

    public <T> Optional<T> getOptional(Option<T> option) {
        if (option == null) {
            throw new NullPointerException("Option not be null.");
        }
        Object value = getValue(option.key());
        if (value == null) {
            for (String fallbackKey : option.getFallbackKeys()) {
                value = getValue(fallbackKey);
                if (value != null) {
                    log.warn(
                            "Please use the new key '{}' instead of the deprecated key '{}'.",
                            option.key(),
                            fallbackKey);
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        if (value == null) {
            return Optional.empty();
        }
        return Optional.of(convertValue(value, option));

View on GitHub (pinned to cf67b549a7)

Solutions

1. Lower skip_header_row_number so it is strictly less than the number of rows in every matched sheet.
2. Remove the nearly empty file from the source path or move it out of the matched directory.
3. Pre-check each Excel file's row count before the job and validate it against the configured skip value.

Example fix

// before
skip_header_row_number = 5   // sheet only has 3 rows
// after
skip_header_row_number = 1

java
// Before the job: ensure sheet has more rows than skip count
int lastRowNum = sheet.getLastRowNum();
if (skipHeaderRowNumber >= lastRowNum + 1) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("skip_header_row_number=" + skipHeaderRowNumber
        + " exceeds rows in sheet (lastRowNum=" + lastRowNum + ")");
}

java
try {
    reader.readProcess(split);
} catch (FileConnectorException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("Skip the number of rows exceeds")) {
        LOG.error("skip_header_row_number too large for file {} — lower it or exclude the file", split.getPath(), e);
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: readByPoi is called on a sheet whose (lastRowNum - firstRowNum + 1) is less than or equal to the configured skip_header_row_number, e.g. skipping 5 header rows on a sheet with only 3 rows, or on an effectively empty sheet.

Common situations: A shared skip_header_row_number value reused across files where some sheets are nearly empty; miscounting header rows; the pipeline picked up a truncated or header-only Excel file.

Understand the failure class

Background: "value must be between 0 and 1" / "out of range" / "must not be negative" errors: fixing range-validation failures across open-source libraries — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

• Condition operator must not be null
• prepare method is not supported
• Json parsing exception.
• Condition option must not be null
• Operator EXTENSION requires a non-null ConditionExtension

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/78de8569697d43a0. Report an issue: GitHub.