elastic/elasticsearch · error · ParseException

expected EMPTY or ( but found: {}

Error message

expected EMPTY or ( but found: {}

What it means

Thrown by WellKnownText.nextEmptyOrOpen when the token following a geometry keyword is neither the word EMPTY nor '('. Every geometry in WKT must be followed by either EMPTY (e.g. "POINT EMPTY") or an opening parenthesis for its coordinates.

Source

Thrown at libs/geo/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/geometry/utils/WellKnownText.java:751

        try {
            token = nextWord(stream);
            if (token.equals(Z) || token.equals(M)) {
                return true;
            }
            stream.pushBack();
            return false;
        } catch (ParseException | IOException e) {
            return false;
        }

    }

    static String nextEmptyOrOpen(StreamTokenizer stream) throws IOException, ParseException {
        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)) {

View on GitHub (pinned to db6a809a66)

Solutions

1. Add the missing '(' before coordinates or use EMPTY for empty geometries.
2. Validate that each geometry keyword is immediately followed by either ' (' or ' EMPTY'.

Example fix

// before: missing open paren after keyword
Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT("POINT 1 2");

// after: include the open paren
Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT("POINT (1 2)");
// or EMPTY for no coordinates
Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT("POINT EMPTY");

// Verify each geometry keyword is followed by EMPTY or '('
static void checkBodyOpener(String wkt) {
    // for each known keyword, ensure the next non-space token is EMPTY or '('
}

try {
    Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT(wkt);
} catch (java.text.ParseException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("EMPTY or")) {
        // missing '(' or EMPTY after keyword
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: WKT of the form "POINT" followed by something other than EMPTY or '(' — e.g. "POINT 1 2" (missing open paren), "POINT , 1 2", or "POINT)". After reading the type keyword, the parser expects the body opener and finds a different token.

Common situations: Hand-written WKT omitting the opening parenthesis; malformed concatenation of WKT fragments; a copy-paste that dropped the '(' or 'EMPTY'.

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/688b5722d6743f61. Report an issue: GitHub.