apache/seatunnel · error · TableNotExistException

Table schema is null or empty. DescribeTable returned:

Error message

Table schema is null or empty. DescribeTable returned: 

What it means

LanceCatalog.getTable reads the table's Arrow schema and calls convertTableSchema; if conversion returns null (schema is null or empty), it throws a TableNotExistException wrapping a CatalogException describing what DescribeTable returned. This signals the Lance dataset exists but yields no usable schema.

Source

Thrown at seatunnel-connectors-v2/connector-lance/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/connectors/seatunnel/lance/catalog/LanceCatalog.java:200

                                    convertArrowSchemaToJsonArrowSchema(arrowSchemaFromDataset);
                            log.debug(
                                    "Successfully got schema from dataset with {} fields",
                                    arrowSchema.getFields().size());
                        }
                    }
                    dataset.close();
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    log.debug(
                            "Failed to get schema from dataset at {}: {}",
                            datasetPath,
                            e.getMessage());
                }
            }

            CatalogTable catalogTable =
                    convertTableSchema(arrowSchema, tablePath, arrowSchemaFromDataset);
            if (catalogTable == null) {
                throw new TableNotExistException(
                        catalogName,
                        tablePath,
                        new CatalogException(
                                "Table schema is null or empty. DescribeTable returned: "
                                        + (arrowSchema != null ? arrowSchema : "null schema")));
            }
            return catalogTable;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            String errorMsg = e.getMessage();
            if (errorMsg != null
                    && (errorMsg.contains("Table does not exist")
                            || errorMsg.contains("TABLE_NOT_FOUND")
                            || errorMsg.contains("404"))) {
                throw new TableNotExistException(catalogName, tablePath, e);
            } else {
                throw new CatalogException("Failed to get table: " + tablePath.getTableName(), e);
            }
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to cf67b549a7)

Solutions

1. Verify the dataset at the table path is a valid, non-empty Lance dataset (inspect with lance tooling or read the manifest)
2. Recreate/rewrite the table with a proper schema
3. Check the catalog warehouse path configuration to ensure it points at the intended dataset
4. Confirm the storage backend is accessible and the dataset files were not truncated by a failed write

ArrowSchema schema = readArrowSchema(tablePath);
if (schema == null || schema.getFields().isEmpty()) {
    // treat as missing/invalid table before calling catalog.getTable
}

try {
    catalogTable = lanceCatalog.getTable(tablePath);
} catch (TableNotExistException e) {
    // table absent or schema empty: create or repair dataset
}

When it happens

Trigger: getTable is called for a tablePath whose underlying Lance dataset returns an empty/null Arrow schema, so convertTableSchema produces no CatalogTable.

Common situations: Empty or corrupt Lance dataset directory; dataset written without columns; storage metadata missing/truncated; wrong dataset path pointing at an empty location that still resolves as a table.

Understand the failure class

Background: EmptyResultError / "no results found": when an API or scraper succeeds but returns zero rows — this error's family across 9 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to get table:
• Failed to create empty dataset at
• Failed to drop table:
• Preview action is not supported
• Can not find catalog table with factoryId [%s]

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f6b192748964bc50. Report an issue: GitHub.