elastic/elasticsearch · error · IllegalArgumentException

invalid latitude

Error message

invalid latitude 

What it means

Thrown by GeographyValidator.checkLatitude when a latitude value is NaN or falls outside the inclusive range [-90.0, 90.0]. Geographic coordinates require latitude to stay within the pole-to-pole range; anything else is treated as corrupt input. The bounds are inclusive on both ends.

Source

Thrown at libs/geo/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/geometry/utils/GeographyValidator.java:71

     */
    private static final double MAX_LAT_INCL = 90.0D;

    private final boolean ignoreZValue;

    protected GeographyValidator(boolean ignoreZValue) {
        this.ignoreZValue = ignoreZValue;
    }

    public static GeometryValidator instance(boolean ignoreZValue) {
        return ignoreZValue ? TRUE : FALSE;
    }

    /**
     * validates latitude value is within standard +/-90 coordinate bounds
     */
    protected void checkLatitude(double latitude) {
        if (Double.isNaN(latitude) || latitude < MIN_LAT_INCL || latitude > MAX_LAT_INCL) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                "invalid latitude " + latitude + "; must be between " + MIN_LAT_INCL + " and " + MAX_LAT_INCL
            );
        }
    }

    /**
     * validates longitude value is within standard +/-180 coordinate bounds
     */
    protected void checkLongitude(double longitude) {
        if (Double.isNaN(longitude) || longitude < MIN_LON_INCL || longitude > MAX_LON_INCL) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                "invalid longitude " + longitude + "; must be between " + MIN_LON_INCL + " and " + MAX_LON_INCL
            );
        }
    }

    protected void checkAltitude(double zValue) {
        if (ignoreZValue == false && Double.isNaN(zValue) == false) {

View on GitHub (pinned to db6a809a66)

Solutions

1. Confirm the value is latitude and is in [-90, 90]; clamp or reject out-of-range values upstream.
2. Check for swapped lat/lon — if the failing value looks like a longitude (>90), the columns are reversed.
3. Filter NaN before validation if missing data should be skipped rather than rejected.

Example fix

// before
GeographyValidator.instance(true).validateCoordinate(120.0, 130.0, Double.NaN); // lat=130 invalid

// after
GeographyValidator.instance(true).validateCoordinate(130.0, 120.0, Double.NaN); // lon=130, lat=120 -> still bad
GeographyValidator.instance(true).validateCoordinate(130.0, 45.0, Double.NaN); // correct: lon=130, lat=45

if (Double.isNaN(lat) || lat < -90.0 || lat > 90.0) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("latitude out of range: " + lat);
}
GeographyValidator.instance(ignoreZ).validateCoordinate(lon, lat, z);

static boolean isValidLatitude(double lat) {
    return !Double.isNaN(lat) && lat >= -90.0 && lat <= 90.0;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any path that calls checkLatitude directly or indirectly (validateCoordinate, validate(Geometry) on a geometry containing points, etc.) with a y-value that is NaN, less than -90.0, or greater than 90.0.

Common situations: Swapped lat/lon columns in source data (longitude 120 sent as latitude); unbounded numeric inputs not clamped before validation; null/missing values converted to NaN; projections or computations that overflow the valid range.

Related errors

• invalid longitude
• found Z value [
• max y cannot be less than min y
• max y cannot be less than min y
• only one z value is specified

AI-assisted analysis of elastic/elasticsearch@db6a809a66 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/676c6620e24a2926. Report an issue: GitHub.