elastic/elasticsearch · error · ParseException

expected , but found: {}

Error message

expected , but found: {}

What it means

Thrown by WellKnownText.nextComma when the token at the current position is not ','. This helper asserts a comma separator, used between elements in multi-component structures.

Source

Thrown at libs/geo/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/geometry/utils/WellKnownText.java:765

        final String next = nextWord(stream);
        if (next.equals(EMPTY) || next.equals(LPAREN)) {
            return next;
        }
        throw new ParseException("expected " + EMPTY + " or " + LPAREN + " but found: " + tokenString(stream), stream.lineno());
    }

    static String nextCloser(StreamTokenizer stream) throws IOException, ParseException {
        if (nextWord(stream).equals(RPAREN)) {
            return RPAREN;
        }
        throw new ParseException("expected " + RPAREN + " but found: " + tokenString(stream), stream.lineno());
    }

    static String nextComma(StreamTokenizer stream) throws IOException, ParseException {
        if (nextWord(stream).equals(COMMA)) {
            return COMMA;
        }
        throw new ParseException("expected " + COMMA + " but found: " + tokenString(stream), stream.lineno());
    }

    static String nextOpener(StreamTokenizer stream) throws IOException, ParseException {
        if (nextWord(stream).equals(LPAREN)) {
            return LPAREN;
        }
        throw new ParseException("expected " + LPAREN + " but found: " + tokenString(stream), stream.lineno());
    }

    static String nextCloserOrComma(StreamTokenizer stream) throws IOException, ParseException {
        String token = nextWord(stream);
        if (token.equals(COMMA) || token.equals(RPAREN)) {
            return token;
        }
        throw new ParseException("expected " + COMMA + " or " + RPAREN + " but found: " + tokenString(stream), stream.lineno());
    }

    private static String getWKTName(Geometry geometry) {

View on GitHub (pinned to db6a809a66)

Solutions

1. Insert the missing ',' separator at the position indicated by stream.lineno().
2. Verify the WKT structure matches the grammar for the geometry type (e.g., ring vertices separated by commas, rings separated by commas).

Example fix

// before: missing comma between vertices in a ring
Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT("LINESTRING (0 0 1 1)");

// after: comma-separated vertices
Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT("LINESTRING (0 0, 1 1)");

try {
    Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT(wkt);
} catch (java.text.ParseException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("expected ,")) {
        // missing comma separator at the reported line
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: WKT where a comma is expected between components but is missing or replaced. This helper is used in specific contexts requiring exactly a comma; if the structure needs comma-or-closer, the parser uses nextCloserOrComma instead.

Common situations: Malformed multi-part WKT where a separator is missing; tokenizer positioned wrong due to a prior error; hand-authored WKT with spaces instead of commas between sub-elements where nextComma is called.

Related errors

• When specifying 'Z' or 'M', coordinates must include three v
• maximum nested depth of 1000 exceeded
• coordinate dimensions do not match: {}
• expected word but found: {}
• invalid number found: {}

AI-assisted analysis of elastic/elasticsearch@db6a809a66 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/75f7aeab8a970c08. Report an issue: GitHub.