hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · IllegalArgumentException

Couldn't determine types of arguments to function 'generate_

Error message

Couldn't determine types of arguments to function 'generate_series'

What it means

H2's generate_series support routes through H2GenerateSeriesFunction. Before choosing between the iteration-variable emulation and plain rendering it must know the JDBC type of the series; if the coalesced expression type of start/stop/step yields no single JdbcMapping it throws this IllegalArgumentException during SQL rendering.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/function/H2GenerateSeriesFunction.java:154

			final Expression start = (Expression) arguments.get( 0 );
			final Expression stop = (Expression) arguments.get( 1 );
			final JdbcMappingContainer expressionType = NullnessHelper.coalesce(
					start.getExpressionType(),
					stop.getExpressionType()
			);
			final Expression explicitStep = arguments.size() > 2
					? (Expression) arguments.get( 2 )
					: null;
			final ColumnReference joinBaseColumnReference = NullnessHelper.coalesce(
					start.getColumnReference(),
					stop.getColumnReference(),
					explicitStep != null
							? explicitStep.getColumnReference()
							: null
			);
			final JdbcMapping type = expressionType.getSingleJdbcMapping();
			if ( type == null ) {
				throw new IllegalArgumentException( "Couldn't determine types of arguments to function 'generate_series'" );
			}

			if ( joinBaseColumnReference != null || withOrdinality || type.getJdbcType().isTemporal() ) {
				return resolveIterationVariableBasedFunctionReturnType( arguments, tableIdentifierVariable, lateral, withOrdinality, converter );
			}
			else {
				return super.resolveFunctionReturnType( arguments, tableIdentifierVariable, lateral, withOrdinality, converter );
			}
		}
	}

	@Override
	protected void renderGenerateSeries(
			SqlAppender sqlAppender,
			Expression start,
			Expression stop,
			@Nullable Expression step,
			AnonymousTupleTableGroupProducer tupleType,

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

Bind series bounds with explicit types or cast them in HQL (cast(:a as integer))
Use typed literals in tests
Prefer the production dialect (Testcontainers PostgreSQL) for queries that lean on dialect-specific set-returning functions
Upgrade Hibernate for improved H2 series type resolution

Example fix

// before (H2)
em.createQuery("select s from generate_series(:a, :b) s(serie, idx)", Object[].class);

// after
em.createQuery("select s from generate_series(cast(:a as integer), cast(:b as integer)) s(serie, idx)", Object[].class);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// In H2-based tests, always bind series bounds with explicit types
q.setParameter("from", from, Integer.class);
q.setParameter("to", to, Integer.class);

Try / catch

try {
    return em.createQuery(hql, Object[].class).getResultList();
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().contains("generate_series")) {
        throw new IllegalStateException("H2 could not type the generate_series bounds; use cast()", e);
    }
    throw e;
}

Prevention

Use cast(:a as integer) in HQL intended to run on H2
Prefer Testcontainers with the production dialect for dialect-specific functions
Keep test and production Hibernate versions aligned

When it happens

Trigger: Running generate_series on the H2 dialect with start/stop (or step) arguments whose expression type has no single JDBC mapping — untyped parameters, null literals, or non-numeric argument types.

Common situations: Integration tests running against H2 (often in place of PostgreSQL) where the same HQL worked natively; H2 tests with parameterized series bounds; version drift between test (H2) and production dialects.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dc4a39dfbd6a5f6f. Report an issue: GitHub.