hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · FunctionArgumentException

Invalid XML attribute name passed to 'xmlattributes()': %s

Error message

Invalid XML attribute name passed to 'xmlattributes()': %s

What it means

Thrown when Hibernate validates the arguments of the HQL 'xmlelement()' function and an attribute name supplied through 'xmlattributes()' fails XmlHelper.isValidXmlName(). A valid XML name must be non-empty, start with a letter, '_' or ':', must not start with 'xml' (case-insensitive, reserved per the XML spec), and may only contain letters, digits, '_', ':', '-', or '.'. The check runs while the SQM query is being parsed/validated, before any SQL is executed.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/function/xml/XmlElementFunction.java:70

									List<? extends SqmTypedNode<?>> arguments,
									String functionName,
									BindingContext bindingContext) {
								//noinspection unchecked
								final var literal = (SqmLiteral<String>) arguments.get( 0 );
								final String elementName = literal.getLiteralValue();
								if ( !XmlHelper.isValidXmlName( elementName ) ) {
									throw new FunctionArgumentException(
											String.format(
													"Invalid XML element name passed to 'xmlelement()': %s",
													elementName
											)
									);
								}
								if ( arguments.size() > 1
										&& arguments.get( 1 ) instanceof SqmXmlAttributesExpression attributesExpression ) {
									for ( var entry : attributesExpression.getAttributes().entrySet() ) {
										if ( !XmlHelper.isValidXmlName( entry.getKey() ) ) {
											throw new FunctionArgumentException(
													String.format(
															"Invalid XML attribute name passed to 'xmlattributes()': %s",
															entry.getKey()
													)
											);
										}
									}
								}
							}
						}
				),
				StandardFunctionReturnTypeResolvers.invariant(
						typeConfiguration.getBasicTypeRegistry().resolve( String.class, SqlTypes.SQLXML )
				),
				null
		);
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Change the alias used inside xmlattributes() so it starts with a letter or underscore, e.g. xmlattributes(p.name as "name") instead of as "1stName"
2. Remove spaces and special characters from the alias (use '-' or '_' instead of ' ', no '@'/'#')
3. Rename aliases that start with 'xml'/'XML' (case-insensitive) to something else, e.g. "dataId" instead of "xmlId"
4. If a non-legal name is mandatory, build the XML on the Java side instead of via xmlelement()

Example fix

// before
select xmlelement(name "user", xmlattributes(p.name as "1st_name", p.id as "xmlId"))
from Person p

// after
select xmlelement(name "user", xmlattributes(p.name as "first_name", p.id as "dataId"))
from Person p

// Mirror of XmlHelper.isValidXmlName - run before assembling HQL
static boolean isValidXmlName(String name) {
    if (name == null || name.isEmpty()
            || !(Character.isLetter(name.charAt(0)) || name.charAt(0) == '_' || name.charAt(0) == ':')
            || name.regionMatches(true, 0, "xml", 0, 3)) {
        return false;
    }
    for (int i = 1; i < name.length(); i++) {
        char c = name.charAt(i);
        if (!(Character.isLetterOrDigit(c) || c == '_' || c == ':' || c == '-' || c == '.')) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

// before building the query:
if (!isValidXmlName(alias)) throw new IllegalArgumentException("alias '" + alias + "' is not a valid XML attribute name");

try {
    return session.createQuery(hql, String.class).getSingleResult();
}
catch (FunctionArgumentException e) { // org.hibernate.query.sqm.produce.function
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("xmlattributes() alias is not a valid XML name: " + e.getMessage(), e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: An HQL/criteria query calls xmlelement(name "person", xmlattributes(p.name as "1stName")) or uses an alias that starts with 'xml' (e.g. as "xmlId"), contains a space (as "first name"), or contains characters like '@', '#', or '='. Any of these makes isValidXmlName return false for the attribute map key and FunctionArgumentException is thrown at query creation.

Common situations: Porting SQL/XML queries from native SQL to HQL where quoted aliases with spaces or numeric prefixes were legal; generating HQL dynamically from user-supplied column labels; XML feeds that want attribute names starting with digits ('2fa', '24h') or with the reserved 'xml' prefix.

Related errors

• Parameter %d of function 'xmlforest()' is not named
• Invalid XML element name passed to 'xmlforest()': %s
• Function %s() has %d parameters, but %d arguments given
• Insert conflict 'do update' clause with constraint name is n
• field type not supported on Derby: " + unit

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/89cc603620af4519. Report an issue: GitHub.