elastic/elasticsearch · error · ParseException

expected word but found: {}

Error message

expected word but found: {}

What it means

Thrown by WellKnownText.nextWord when the StreamTokenizer's next token is not TT_WORD and not one of the structural characters '(', ')', ','. This helper expects a keyword or a delimiter; anything else (EOF, EOL, a number, or an unexpected symbol) is rejected.

Source

Thrown at libs/geo/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/geometry/utils/WellKnownText.java:697

        return circle;
    }

    /**
     * next word in the stream
     */
    static String nextWord(StreamTokenizer stream) throws ParseException, IOException {
        switch (stream.nextToken()) {
            case StreamTokenizer.TT_WORD:
                final String word = stream.sval;
                return word.equalsIgnoreCase(EMPTY) ? EMPTY : word;
            case '(':
                return LPAREN;
            case ')':
                return RPAREN;
            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) {

View on GitHub (pinned to db6a809a66)

Solutions

1. Inspect the full WKT string for truncation or stray characters around the position reported by stream.lineno().
2. Ensure the string is complete: balanced parens, all keywords present.
3. Re-tokenize from a clean StreamTokenizer if a prior parse failed mid-stream.

Example fix

// before: truncated WKT (keyword with no body)
Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT("POINT");

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

try {
    Geometry g = WellKnownText.fromWKT(wkt);
} catch (java.text.ParseException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("expected word")) {
        // report the unexpected token and line number to the user
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any WKT sub-parse that calls nextWord and encounters EOF (truncated string), a number where a keyword/delimiter is expected, or a stray symbol. For example, after reading a type keyword, nextEmptyOrOpen calls nextWord expecting EMPTY or '(' but hits EOF or a number.

Common situations: Truncated WKT string (missing the body); a stray character inserted by copy-paste; a tokenizer left mid-stream after a prior error; encoding issues producing unexpected bytes.

Related errors

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

AI-assisted analysis of elastic/elasticsearch@db6a809a66 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6cf29da43b3b41a2. Report an issue: GitHub.