cube-js/cube · error

Can't compare {:?} to {:?}

Error message

Can't compare {:?} to {:?}

What it means

Same family as error 620 but for owned TableValue (not the row-reference variant): cmp_same_types only compares equal-variant pairs and panics on mixed types. Reaching it means two values of different logical types were compared where the caller assumed the same column type.

Source

Thrown at rust/cubestore/cubestore/src/table/mod.rs:231

    pub fn values(&self) -> &Vec<TableValue> {
        &self.values
    }
}

pub fn cmp_same_types(l: &TableValue, r: &TableValue) -> Ordering {
    match (l, r) {
        (TableValue::Null, TableValue::Null) => Ordering::Equal,
        (TableValue::Null, _) => Ordering::Less,
        (_, TableValue::Null) => Ordering::Greater,
        (TableValue::String(a), TableValue::String(b)) => a.cmp(b),
        (TableValue::Int(a), TableValue::Int(b)) => a.cmp(b),
        (TableValue::Decimal(a), TableValue::Decimal(b)) => a.cmp(b),
        (TableValue::Float(a), TableValue::Float(b)) => a.cmp(b),
        (TableValue::Bytes(a), TableValue::Bytes(b)) => a.cmp(b),
        (TableValue::Timestamp(a), TableValue::Timestamp(b)) => a.cmp(b),
        (TableValue::Boolean(a), TableValue::Boolean(b)) => a.cmp(b),
        (a, b) => panic!("Can't compare {:?} to {:?}", a, b),
    }
}

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use crate::table::{TableValue, TimestampValue};
    use crate::util::decimal::Decimal;
    use deepsize::DeepSizeOf;
    use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};

    #[test]
    fn serialization() {
        for v in &[
            TableValue::Null,
            TableValue::String("foo".into()),
            TableValue::Int(123),
            TableValue::Decimal(Decimal::new(123)),
            TableValue::Float(12_f64.into()),

View on GitHub (pinned to 7d981676b3)

Solutions

1. Ensure consistent column types across all partitions of a table and rebuild inconsistent partitions
2. Coerce values to a common type before comparison in custom code paths
3. Audit import pipelines for values that break declared types
4. File a bug with repro if triggered by standard queries

Example fix

// before
cmp_same_types(&TableValue::Int(1), &TableValue::String("1".into()))
// after
cmp_same_types(&TableValue::Int(1), &TableValue::Int(1))

fn same_variant(a: &TableValue, b: &TableValue) -> bool {
    std::mem::discriminant(a) == std::mem::discriminant(b)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Comparing TableValue::Int with TableValue::String (or any mixed pair) in sort/filter/min-max logic that assumes homogeneous column values.

Common situations: Mixed-type data inside one logical column after import or partition merge; planner bugs comparing values from different typed columns; union of partitions with divergent schemas.

Related errors

• Can't compare {:?} to {:?}
• unexpected value {:?} for type {:?}
• CacheStore cannot be used on the worker node! queue_retrieve
• CacheStore cannot be used on the worker node! queue_ack was
• CacheStore cannot be used on the worker node! queue_result w

AI-assisted analysis of cube-js/cube@7d981676b3 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/80f9dbd161618ea6. Report an issue: GitHub.