hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · SemanticException

Escape character literals must have exactly a single charact

Error message

Escape character literals must have exactly a single character, but found: {}

What it means

Error "Escape character literals must have exactly a single character, but found: {}" thrown in hibernate/hibernate-orm.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/query/hql/internal/SemanticQueryBuilder.java:3321

			);
		}
	}

	@Override
	public Object visitLikeEscape(HqlParser.LikeEscapeContext ctx) {
		final var parameter = ctx.parameter();
		final var characterType = nodeBuilder().getCharacterType();
		if ( parameter instanceof HqlParser.NamedParameterContext namedParameterContext ) {
			return visitNamedParameter( namedParameterContext, characterType );
		}
		else if ( parameter instanceof HqlParser.PositionalParameterContext positionalParameterContext ) {
			return visitPositionalParameter( positionalParameterContext, characterType );
		}
		else {
			final var terminalNode = (TerminalNode) ctx.getChild( 1 );
			final String escape = unquoteStringLiteral( terminalNode.getText() );
			if ( escape.length() != 1 ) {
				throw new SemanticException(
						"Escape character literals must have exactly a single character, but found: " + escape,
						query
				);
			}
			return new SqmLiteral<>( escape.charAt( 0 ), characterType, nodeBuilder() );
		}
	}

	@Override
	public SqmPredicate visitMemberOfPredicate(HqlParser.MemberOfPredicateContext ctx) {
		final boolean negated = ctx.NOT() != null;
		if ( consumeDomainPath( ctx.path() )
				instanceof SqmPluralValuedSimplePath<?> pluralValuedSimplePath ) {
			return new SqmMemberOfPredicate(
					(SqmExpression<?>) ctx.expression().accept( this ),
					pluralValuedSimplePath,
					negated,
					nodeBuilder()

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Use a single-character escape literal in the ESCAPE clause.
2. Fix the escape string length.

When it happens

Trigger: A runtime precondition of the Hibernate API is violated.

Common situations: Occurs when application code or configuration does not satisfy the documented contract of the API being called.

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/74cfac0c7f3b818f. Report an issue: GitHub.