hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · UnsupportedOperationException

Transforming XML_ARRAY to native arrays is not supported on

Error message

Transforming XML_ARRAY to native arrays is not supported on PostgreSQL!

What it means

Error "Transforming XML_ARRAY to native arrays is not supported on PostgreSQL!" thrown in hibernate/hibernate-orm.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/aggregate/PostgreSQLAggregateSupport.java:153

						if ( typeConfiguration.getCurrentBaseSqlTypeIndicators().isXmlFormatMapperLegacyFormatEnabled() ) {
							throw new IllegalArgumentException( "XML array '" + columnExpression + "' in '" + aggregateParentReadExpression + "' is not supported with legacy format enabled." );
						}
						else {
							return template.replace(
									placeholder,
									"xmlelement(name \"Collection\",(select xmlagg(t.v order by t.i) from xmltable(" + xmlExtractArguments( aggregateParentReadExpression, columnExpression + "/*" ) + " columns v xml path '.', i for ordinality)t))"
							);
						}
					case BINARY:
					case VARBINARY:
					case LONG32VARBINARY:
						// We encode binary data as hex, so we have to decode here
						return template.replace(
								placeholder,
								"decode((select t.v from xmltable(" + xmlExtractArguments( aggregateParentReadExpression, columnExpression )+ " columns v text path '.') t),'hex')"
						);
					case ARRAY:
						throw new UnsupportedOperationException( "Transforming XML_ARRAY to native arrays is not supported on PostgreSQL!" );
					default:
						return template.replace(
								placeholder,
								"(select t.v from xmltable(" + xmlExtractArguments( aggregateParentReadExpression, columnExpression ) + " columns v " + getCastTypeName( column, typeConfiguration ) + " path '.') t)"
						);
				}
			case STRUCT:
			case STRUCT_ARRAY:
			case STRUCT_TABLE:
				return template.replace( placeholder, '(' + aggregateParentReadExpression + ")." + columnExpression );
		}
		throw new IllegalArgumentException( "Unsupported aggregate SQL type: " + aggregateColumnTypeCode );
	}

	private static String xmlExtractArguments(String aggregateParentReadExpression, String xpathFragment) {
		final String extractArguments;
		int separatorIndex;
		if ( aggregateParentReadExpression.startsWith( XML_EXTRACT_START )

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Map the collection as XML instead of a native array.

When it happens

Trigger: Triggered when the application calls a Hibernate dialect feature that the configured database dialect cannot provide: Transforming XML_ARRAY to native arrays is not supported on PostgreSQL!.

Common situations: Common when running against a database whose dialect lacks this capability, when a mapping or HQL/Criteria query requests unsupported functionality, or when the wrong dialect is configured for the database in use. Error: Transforming XML_ARRAY to native arrays is not supported on PostgreSQL!.

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/27d9398735721161. Report an issue: GitHub.