elastic/elasticsearch · error · ParseException

expected number but found: {}

Error message

expected number but found: {}

What it means

Thrown by WellKnownText.nextNumber when the StreamTokenizer's next token is not TT_WORD at all (e.g., TT_EOF, TT_EOL, TT_NUMBER, or a punctuation char). Unlike error 586, here there is no word token to even attempt parsing — the token type itself is wrong for a number position.

Source

Thrown at libs/geo/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/geometry/utils/WellKnownText.java:712

            case ',':
                return COMMA;
        }
        throw new ParseException("expected word but found: " + tokenString(stream), stream.lineno());
    }

    static double nextNumber(StreamTokenizer stream) throws IOException, ParseException {
        if (stream.nextToken() == StreamTokenizer.TT_WORD) {
            if (stream.sval.equalsIgnoreCase(NAN)) {
                return Double.NaN;
            } else {
                try {
                    return Double.parseDouble(stream.sval);
                } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
                    throw new ParseException("invalid number found: " + stream.sval, stream.lineno());
                }
            }
        }
        throw new ParseException("expected number but found: " + tokenString(stream), stream.lineno());
    }

    static String tokenString(StreamTokenizer stream) {
        return switch (stream.ttype) {
            case StreamTokenizer.TT_WORD -> stream.sval;
            case StreamTokenizer.TT_EOF -> EOF;
            case StreamTokenizer.TT_EOL -> EOL;
            case StreamTokenizer.TT_NUMBER -> NUMBER;
            default -> "'" + (char) stream.ttype + "'";
        };
    }

    static boolean isNumberNext(StreamTokenizer stream) throws IOException {
        final int type = stream.nextToken();
        stream.pushBack();
        return type == StreamTokenizer.TT_WORD;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to db6a809a66)

Solutions

1. Check the WKT string is not truncated and has the expected number of coordinate values per the geometry type.
2. Verify comma and parenthesis placement so nextNumber is only called at numeric positions.
3. Ensure the StreamTokenizer is configured as WellKnownText expects (numbers not parsed to TT_NUMBER).

Example fix

// before: truncated coordinate tuple (missing second value)
Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT("POINT (1 )");

// after: complete tuple
Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT("POINT (1 2)");

// Confirm each coordinate tuple has the expected number of numeric values
static void checkTupleComplete(String wkt, int valuesPerTuple) {
    // parse parenthesized groups, split tuples, assert each has valuesPerTuple numbers
}

try {
    Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT(wkt);
} catch (java.text.ParseException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("expected number")) {
        // likely truncation; report missing numeric value
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: A coordinate position in WKT where the tokenizer hits EOF (truncated after a comma or space), an end-of-line, or a structural character. For example "POINT (1 )" expecting a second number but finding ')' or end-of-string.

Common situations: Truncated WKT cut off mid-coordinate; an extra or missing comma shifting the parser so it reads a delimiter where a number is expected; tokenizer configured to parse numbers (TT_NUMBER) rather than leaving them as words.

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/95155b23344c366a. Report an issue: GitHub.