hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · SemanticException

Operand of 'is empty' operator must be a plural path

Error message

Operand of 'is empty' operator must be a plural path

What it means

Error "Operand of 'is empty' operator must be a plural path" thrown in hibernate/hibernate-orm.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/query/hql/internal/SemanticQueryBuilder.java:2530

				(SqmExpression<?>) ctx.expression( 2 ).accept( this ),
				ctx.NOT() != null,
				nodeBuilder()
		);
	}

	@Override
	public SqmPredicate visitUnaryIsPredicate(HqlParser.UnaryIsPredicateContext ctx) {
		final var expression = (SqmExpression<?>) ctx.expression().accept( this );
		final var negated = ctx.NOT() != null;
		final var nodeBuilder = nodeBuilder();
		return switch ( ((TerminalNode) ctx.getChild( ctx.getChildCount() - 1 )).getSymbol().getType() ) {
			case HqlParser.NULL -> new SqmNullnessPredicate( expression, negated, nodeBuilder );
			case HqlParser.EMPTY -> {
				if ( expression instanceof SqmPluralValuedSimplePath<?> pluralValuedSimplePath ) {
					yield new SqmEmptinessPredicate( pluralValuedSimplePath, negated, nodeBuilder );
				}
				else {
					throw new SemanticException( "Operand of 'is empty' operator must be a plural path", query );
				}
			}
			case HqlParser.TRUE -> new SqmTruthnessPredicate( expression, true, negated, nodeBuilder );
			case HqlParser.FALSE -> new SqmTruthnessPredicate( expression, false, negated, nodeBuilder );
			default -> throw new AssertionError( "Unknown unary is predicate: " + ctx.getChild( ctx.getChildCount() - 1 ) );
		};
	}

	@Override
	public SqmPredicate visitBinaryExpressionPredicate(HqlParser.BinaryExpressionPredicateContext ctx) {
		final var firstSymbol = ((TerminalNode) ctx.getChild( 1 )).getSymbol();
		final boolean negated;
		final Token operationSymbol;
		if ( firstSymbol.getType() == HqlParser.NOT ) {
			negated = true;
			operationSymbol = ((TerminalNode) ctx.getChild( 2 )).getSymbol();
		}
		else {

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Apply 'is empty' only to collection-valued paths.
2. Check that the operand is a mapped collection attribute.

When it happens

Trigger: A path expression of the wrong type is used in a collection predicate.

Common situations: Applying member of / is empty / includes / intersects / in-array to non-plural expressions.

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c8ffa0a038f8525a. Report an issue: GitHub.