hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · SemanticException

Slice operator applied to expression which is not a string o

Error message

Slice operator applied to expression which is not a string or SQL array

What it means

Error "Slice operator applied to expression which is not a string or SQL array" thrown in hibernate/hibernate-orm.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/query/hql/internal/SemanticQueryBuilder.java:5822

												BinaryArithmeticOperator.SUBTRACT,
												end,
												start,
												nodeBuilder()
										),
										new SqmLiteral<>(
												1,
												nodeBuilder().getIntegerType(),
												nodeBuilder()
										),
										nodeBuilder()
								)
						),
						null,
						queryEngine()
				);
			}
			else {
				throw new SemanticException( "Slice operator applied to expression which is not a string or SQL array", query );
			}
		}
		else {
			throw new ParsingException( "Illegal domain path '" + ctx.getText() + "'" );
		}
	}

	private SemanticPathPart visitIndexedPathAccessFragment(
			SemanticPathPart pathPart,
			HqlParser.IndexedPathAccessFragmentContext idxCtx) {
		if ( idxCtx == null ) {
			return pathPart;
		}

		final var indexExpression = (SqmExpression<?>) idxCtx.expression().accept(this );
		final boolean hasIndexContinuation = idxCtx.DOT() != null;
		final var indexedPath =
				pathPart.resolveIndexedAccess( indexExpression, !hasIndexContinuation, this );

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. The slice operator only works on strings and SQL arrays. Apply it to a string or array expression.

When it happens

Trigger: The slice operator is applied to an unsupported expression: Slice operator applied to expression which is not a string or SQL array

Common situations: Using array/string slicing on expressions whose type is unknown or neither string nor SQL array.

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a9bf0b3c58ae1c5f. Report an issue: GitHub.