drizzle-team/drizzle-orm · error · Error

values() must be called with at least one value

Error message

values() must be called with at least one value

What it means

Thrown in SingleStoreInsertBuilder.values (insert.ts:68) when the normalized values array has length 0. An INSERT with zero value rows is not valid SQL, so Drizzle rejects it at the builder level rather than emitting an incomplete statement.

Source

Thrown at drizzle-orm/src/singlestore-core/query-builders/insert.ts:68

	constructor(
		private table: TTable,
		private session: SingleStoreSession,
		private dialect: SingleStoreDialect,
	) {}

	ignore(): this {
		this.shouldIgnore = true;
		return this;
	}

	values(value: SingleStoreInsertValue<TTable>): SingleStoreInsertBase<TTable, TQueryResult, TPreparedQueryHKT>;
	values(values: SingleStoreInsertValue<TTable>[]): SingleStoreInsertBase<TTable, TQueryResult, TPreparedQueryHKT>;
	values(
		values: SingleStoreInsertValue<TTable> | SingleStoreInsertValue<TTable>[],
	): SingleStoreInsertBase<TTable, TQueryResult, TPreparedQueryHKT> {
		values = Array.isArray(values) ? values : [values];
		if (values.length === 0) {
			throw new Error('values() must be called with at least one value');
		}
		const mappedValues = values.map((entry) => {
			const result: Record<string, Param | SQL> = {};
			const cols = this.table[Table.Symbol.Columns];
			for (const colKey of Object.keys(entry)) {
				const colValue = entry[colKey as keyof typeof entry];
				result[colKey] = is(colValue, SQL) ? colValue : new Param(colValue, cols[colKey]);
			}
			return result;
		});

		return new SingleStoreInsertBase(this.table, mappedValues, this.shouldIgnore, this.session, this.dialect);
	}
}

export type SingleStoreInsertWithout<
	T extends AnySingleStoreInsert,
	TDynamic extends boolean,

View on GitHub (pinned to b7862528fd)

Solutions

1. Guard the insert: `if (rows.length) await db.insert(t).values(rows);`.
2. Default to a no-op or skip when the input array is empty.
3. Validate at the API boundary that the payload contains at least one record.

Example fix

// before
await db.insert(users).values(batch);
// after
if (batch.length > 0) {
  await db.insert(users).values(batch);
}

if (Array.isArray(rows) ? rows.length === 0 : false) {
  throw new Error('Cannot insert an empty batch');
}
if (rows.length > 0) await db.insert(table).values(rows);

function hasAtLeastOneValue(v) { return Array.isArray(v) ? v.length > 0 : v != null; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling db.insert(table).values([]) directly; passing a runtime array variable that happens to be empty (e.g. results of a filter that returned nothing); spreading a generated list without a guard.

Common situations: Batch insert paths where upstream filtering produced no rows; UI bulk-save with no changes; ETL step that receives an empty chunk; tests that pass [] as a placeholder.

Related errors

• values() must be called with at least one value
• values() must be called with at least one value
• Insert select error: selected fields are not the same or are
• values() must be called with at least one value
• Insert select error: selected fields are not the same or are

AI-assisted analysis of drizzle-team/drizzle-orm@b7862528fd (2026-08-03). Data as JSON: /data/errors/2ddee9c318186bf4.json. Report an issue: GitHub.