hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · IllegalStateException

unexpected quote read in current processing state {}

Error message

unexpected quote read in current processing state {}

What it means

While pulling items, the reader consumed a '"' character, but the internal state machine is in a state where a quoted token is illegal — only STARTING_ARRAY, ARRAY, STARTING_OBJECT, OBJECT and OBJECT_KEY_NAME accept one (e.g. state NONE before any '{' or '[' was seen). The message appends the offending state, e.g. 'unexpected quote read in current processing state NONE'. Hibernate is rejecting structurally invalid JSON.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/type/format/StringJsonDocumentReader.java:192

					//   - if we are in the middle of an object :
					//        - if we just hit ':' that's a quoted value
					//        - if we just hit ',' that's a quoted key
					switch ( this.processingStates.getCurrent() ) {
						case STARTING_ARRAY:
							//this.processingStates.push( JsonProcessingState.ARRAY );
							return JsonDocumentItemType.VALUE;
						case ARRAY:
							return JsonDocumentItemType.VALUE;
						case STARTING_OBJECT:
							//this.processingStates.push( JsonProcessingState.OBJECT );
							//this.processingStates.push( JsonProcessingState.OBJECT_KEY_NAME );
							return JsonDocumentItemType.VALUE_KEY;
						case OBJECT: // we are processing object attribute value elements
							return JsonDocumentItemType.VALUE;
						case OBJECT_KEY_NAME: // we are processing object elements key
							return JsonDocumentItemType.VALUE_KEY;
						default:
							throw new IllegalStateException( "unexpected quote read in current processing state " +
															this.processingStates.getCurrent() );
					}
				case KEY_VALUE_SEPARATOR:  // that's the start of an attribute value
					//assert this.processingStates.getCurrent() == JsonProcessingState.OBJECT_KEY_NAME;
					// flush the OBJECT_KEY_NAME
					//this.processingStates.pop();
					break;
				case SEPARATOR:
					// unless we are processing an array, following SEPARATOR that will a key
					break;
				case OTHER:
					// here we are in front of a boolean, a null or a numeric value.
					// if none of these cases we're going to raise IllegalStateException
					// put back what we've read
					moveBufferPosition(-1);
					final int valueSize = consumeNonStringValue();
					if (valueSize == -1) {
						throw new IllegalStateException( "Unrecognized marker: " + StringJsonDocumentMarker.markerOf(

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Inspect the exact column value that fails and make the document object- or array-rooted, with quotes only around keys and string values
2. Fix the writer (ETL job, other application, manual UPDATE) to emit strict JSON via a real serializer
3. Pre-validate values on write with a strict parser (see validationCode)
4. Catch IllegalStateException around the Hibernate read so the bad row fails with a meaningful message instead of breaking hydration blind

Example fix

-- before: column holds a bare JSON string
UPDATE entity_table SET json_col = '"hello"';
-- after: object-rooted document
UPDATE entity_table SET json_col = '{"msg":"hello"}';

// run before storing into a JSON-mapped column
static boolean isStrictJsonRooted(String candidate) {
    try {
        com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode n =
                new com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper().readTree(candidate);
        return n.isObject() || n.isArray();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        return false;
    }
}

try {
    return session.createQuery(...).getResultList();
} catch (IllegalStateException e) {
    if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().startsWith("unexpected quote read")) {
        throw new DataQualityException("JSON column holds a non object/array-rooted document", e);
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: next() reading a QUOTE marker while the state is NONE, ENDING_OBJECT or ENDING_ARRAY: a top-level string document like "abc" with no wrapping {} or []; trailing text after the root closes like {} "x"; a stray quote where the grammar requires ':', ',', '}' or ']'.

Common situations: JSON columns populated by hand or by another service that stores a bare serialized string instead of an object/array-rooted document; concatenating two JSON documents into one column value; storing the double-encoded JSON-string representation of an object.

Related errors

• unexpected read [{}] in current processing state {}
• Unexpected JsonProcessingState {}
• Unrecognized marker: {}
• unexpected end of JSON [{}] in current processing state {}
• Can't find ending quote of key name

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d53c100a40613513. Report an issue: GitHub.