apache/seatunnel · error · UnsupportedOperationException

Unsupported convert to Short, typeDefine

Error message

Unsupported convert ${value.getClass()} to Short, typeDefine: ${typeDefine}

What it means

Thrown by BasicDataConverter.convertShort(T typeDefine, Object value) when the value is neither a Number nor a String. Short conversion supports numeric widening/narrowing and string parsing; any other class is rejected with the value class and type definition in the message.

Solutions

1. Convert the value to Number or String before conversion (e.g. Boolean ? (short)1 : (short)0, or decode the byte[])
2. Fix the catalog/schema so the field type matches the source data (BOOLEAN, BYTES, etc. instead of SMALLINT)
3. Override convertShort(T typeDefine, Object value) in a custom converter for the reported class

Example fix

// before
short s = converter.convertShort(typeDefine, row.getField(0)); // byte[] throws
// after
Object v = row.getField(0);
short s = (v instanceof byte[])
        ? ByteBuffer.wrap((byte[]) v).getShort()
        : converter.convertShort(typeDefine, v);

Object v = row.getField(0);
if (!(v instanceof Number) && !(v instanceof String)) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Value " + v.getClass() + " is not convertible to SHORT");
}

static boolean isShortConvertible(Object v) {
    return v instanceof Number || v instanceof String;
}

try {
    s = converter.convertShort(typeDefine, value);
} catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {
    LOG.warn("Inconvertible value {} for SMALLINT: {}", value, e.getMessage());
    s = 0;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling convertShort(typeDefine, value) with byte[], Boolean, LocalDate, Map or other non-numeric/non-string objects while mapping a field to a SMALLINT column.

Common situations: Source schema says binary/boolean but the sink expects SMALLINT; enum-like fields serialized as objects; catalog definitions that drifted from actual data types.

Understand the failure class

Background: Type mismatch errors: IllegalArgumentException, TypeError and type guards across 150 open-source libraries — this error's family across 150 libraries.

Related errors

• Unsupported convert to Boolean, typeDefine
• Unsupported convert to Boolean
• Unsupported convert to Byte
• Unsupported convert to Byte, typeDefine
• Unsupported convert to Float, typeDefine

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8b7aba28dbf57dd7. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at seatunnel-api/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/api/table/converter/BasicDataConverter.java:1191

    default int convertInt(LocalDateTime value) {
        return (int) (value.atZone(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant().toEpochMilli() / 1000);
    }

    default int convertInt(LocalDate value) {
        return (int) (value.atStartOfDay(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant().toEpochMilli() / 1000);
    }

    default short convertShort(T typeDefine, Object value) throws UnsupportedOperationException {
        if (value instanceof Short) {
            return (short) value;
        }
        if (value instanceof Number) {
            return convertShort(typeDefine, (Number) value);
        }
        if (value instanceof String) {
            return convertShort(typeDefine, (String) value);
        }
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException(
                "Unsupported convert " + value.getClass() + " to Short, typeDefine: " + typeDefine);
    }

    default short convertShort(T typeDefine, Number value) {
        return convertShort(value);
    }

    default short convertShort(T typeDefine, String value) {
        return convertShort(value);
    }

    default short convertShort(Object value) throws UnsupportedOperationException {
        if (value instanceof Short) {
            return (short) value;
        }
        if (value instanceof Number) {
            return convertShort((Number) value);
        }

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