dbt-labs/dbt-core · error · IndexError

' ' is not a column of

Error message

'{out}' is not a column of '{}'

What it means

When generating the SELECT list for an information-schema view, each requested output column must exist in the registered table spec. If a requested column name (out) is not found among spec.cols, create_view_sql fails with this error naming both the column and the underlying table. It prevents generating SQL that would reference a nonexistent column.

Solutions

1. Verify each requested column name against the spec's declared columns (spec.cols / c.out)
2. Upgrade dbt-index-core if the column was introduced in a newer release
3. Derive the column list programmatically from the spec instead of hardcoding it
4. Fix the typo if a column name was misspelled

Example fix

// before
cols: vec!["node_id", "cheksum"] // typo
// after
cols: vec!["node_id", "checksum"]

let declared: Vec<_> = spec.cols.iter().map(|c| c.out.as_str()).collect();
for c in &cols { assert!(declared.contains(&c.as_str()), "unknown column {c}"); }

When it happens

Trigger: Building an information-schema view while requesting a column (self.cols entry) that the registered spec for the vocabulary does not declare — e.g. a typo, a column added in a newer schema version, or mixing column sets across vocabularies.

Common situations: A caller constructs the column list from a stale or hand-written list instead of the spec; upgrading index-core renamed or removed a column; copying a column list from a different information-schema table.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• no information-schema table named
• clean_sql
• Detected columns with numeric type and unspecified…
• events_last_year should compile without error
• invalid return value

AI-assisted analysis of dbt-labs/dbt-core@0267ce9170 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ac6b3b7df82cd715. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/dbt-index-core/src/info_schema/parse_safe.rs:652

        // Assembled rather than projected. `info_schema::build_own` and
        // `epoch_views::own_sql` special-case the same table by name; this is the third
        // place that has to, for the same reason.
        if matches!(self.src, Src::Own) {
            return self.dag_nodes_sql();
        }

        let spec = spec_for(Ns::Dbt, self.vocabulary).ok_or_else(|| {
            self.err(format!(
                "no information-schema table named '{}'",
                self.vocabulary
            ))
        })?;

        let mut selects = Vec::with_capacity(self.cols.len());
        for out in self.cols {
            let col =
                spec.cols.iter().find(|c| c.out == *out).ok_or_else(|| {
                    self.err(format!("'{out}' is not a column of '{}'", spec.name))
                })?;
            // A column the information schema declares but assembles in code has no
            // source name to borrow; the index column is the one that shares its name.
            let src = if col.src.is_empty() { col.out } else { col.src };
            selects.push(format!("{} AS {}", self.qualify(src)?, quote(out)));
        }

        let from = match self.src {
            Src::Table(table) => format!("{BASE_SCHEMA}.{} AS {T}", quote(table)),
            Src::Join {
                left,
                right,
                left_on,
                right_on,
            } => format!(
                "{BASE_SCHEMA}.{} AS {L} LEFT JOIN {BASE_SCHEMA}.{} AS {R} ON {L}.{} = {R}.{}",
                quote(left),
                quote(right),

View on GitHub (pinned to 0267ce9170)