iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI · error · ArgumentException

invalid {key}: '{value}'. Valid: true, false

Error message

invalid {key}: '{value}'. Valid: true, false

What it means

ArgumentException thrown by ParsePivotStyleBool when a pivot-table style boolean key (showRowStripes, showColumnStripes, showRowHeaders, showColumnHeaders, showLastColumn) receives a value that is not one of the accepted spellings. Accepted (case-insensitive): true/1/yes/on and false/0/no/off. Anything else is rejected to avoid silent fallbacks masking typos (CONSISTENCY strict-enums).

Source

Thrown at src/officecli/Core/PivotTableHelper.Definition.cs:87

        }
        return pivotDef.PivotTableStyle;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Strict bool parser for pivot style toggles. Accepts true/false/1/0/
    /// yes/no/on/off (case-insensitive) and throws ArgumentException on
    /// anything else. CONSISTENCY(strict-enums): matches the sort-mode and
    /// showdataas reject-unknown behavior introduced in the recent pivot
    /// validation sweep — silent fallbacks mask typos.
    /// </summary>
    private static bool ParsePivotStyleBool(string key, string value)
    {
        switch ((value ?? "").Trim().ToLowerInvariant())
        {
            case "true": case "1": case "yes": case "on": return true;
            case "false": case "0": case "no": case "off": return false;
            default:
                throw new ArgumentException(
                    $"invalid {key}: '{value}'. Valid: true, false");
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Apply the five &lt;pivotTableStyleInfo&gt; bool attributes from the
    /// caller's properties dict onto an existing PivotTableStyle element.
    /// Only keys actually present in the dict are applied, so Set
    /// operations can change one toggle without clobbering the others.
    /// Accepts both canonical (showColStripes) and OOXML-verbatim
    /// (showColumnStripes) spellings for the "col/column" siblings,
    /// matching the existing alias policy.
    /// </summary>
    private static void ApplyPivotStyleInfoProps(
        PivotTableStyle styleInfo,
        Dictionary<string, string> properties)
    {
        foreach (var (rawKey, value) in properties)

View on GitHub (pinned to 1ced45e900)

Solutions

1. Use one of the accepted spellings: true/false, 1/0, yes/no, or on/off.
2. For the column variants both spellings are accepted as keys (showColStripes or showColumnStripes), but the VALUE must still be one of the accepted bool spellings.
3. Normalize upstream boolean input to true/false before setting the pivot style property.

Example fix

// before
showRowStripes="yep"
// after
showRowStripes="true"

static readonly System.Collections.Generic.HashSet<string> PivotBoolWords =
    new(System.StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase) { "true","1","yes","on","false","0","no","off" };
static bool IsPivotStyleBool(string value) => PivotBoolWords.Contains((value ?? "").Trim());

When it happens

Trigger: Setting a pivot table styleInfo toggle with an unrecognized value, e.g. showRowStripes="yep", showColStripes="enable", showLastColumn="t", or showColumnStripes="".

Common situations: Using abbreviations ('t'/'f', 'y'/'n'); passing 'enable'/'disable' or 'checked'/'unchecked'; empty value from an unset JSON key; locale-specific words.

Related errors

• Invalid source range: {sourceRef}
• Column {startCol} out of range (max: XFD)
• Column {endCol} out of range (max: XFD)
• Invalid color value: '{value}'. Expected 6-digit hex RGB (e.
• Worksheet missing

AI-assisted analysis of iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI@1ced45e900 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f45caf3fb77f46d1. Report an issue: GitHub.