influxdata/influxdb · error · DataPointError

All `DataPoints` must have at least one field. Builder…

Error message

All `DataPoints` must have at least one field. Builder contains: {:?}

What it means

`DataPointError::AtLeastOneFieldRequired` is returned by `DataPointBuilder::build()` when no fields were added to the builder. An InfluxDB line-protocol data point must carry at least one field (measurement + fields are the minimal valid point); tags alone or a bare timestamp are not a valid point, so the builder refuses to construct it.

Solutions

Add at least one `.field("name", value)` call before `.build()`.
If fields are computed dynamically, check the field map is non-empty and skip/skip-write points with no fields.
If a record legitimately has no fields, decide on an explicit policy: drop the record or log a warning rather than attempting to write it.
Verify your extraction logic is not discarding all field values (e.g. null filtering too aggressive).

Example fix

// before
let point = DataPoint::builder("cpu")
    .tag("host", "server01")
    .build()?; // error: no fields
// after
let point = DataPoint::builder("cpu")
    .tag("host", "server01")
    .field("usage", 0.64)
    .build()?;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if fields.is_empty() {
    return Err("data point requires at least one field".into());
}

Try / catch

match builder_result {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("at least one field") => {
        log::debug!("skipping point with no fields");
        return Ok(());
    }
    other => other,
}

Prevention

Always call at least one `.field(...)` before `.build()`
Filter out points with empty field maps before writing batches
Add a unit test asserting generated points always have >= 1 field

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `DataPoint::builder(measurement).build()` without any intervening `.field(...)` call, e.g. building points from records where all field values were filtered out as None, or only setting tags/timestamp before `build()`.

Common situations: Dynamically constructing points from JSON/CSV rows where field extraction produced an empty map; converting telemetry events where only tags were present; forgetting the builder call chain step that adds fields.

Understand the failure class

Background: "must not be empty", "cannot be empty" — required-field validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of influxdata/influxdb@06200ef96b (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d5df09e59a0c47bf. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at core/influxdb2_client/src/models/data_point.rs:66

    /// Sets a field, replacing any existing field of the same name.
    pub fn field(mut self, name: impl Into<String>, value: impl Into<FieldValue>) -> Self {
        self.fields.insert(name.into(), value.into());
        self
    }

    /// Sets the timestamp, replacing any existing timestamp.
    ///
    /// The value is treated as the number of nanoseconds since the
    /// UNIX epoch.
    pub fn timestamp(mut self, value: i64) -> Self {
        self.timestamp = Some(value);
        self
    }

    /// Constructs the data point
    pub fn build(self) -> Result<DataPoint, DataPointError> {
        ensure!(
            !self.fields.is_empty(),
            AtLeastOneFieldRequiredSnafu {
                data_point_builder: self
            }
        );

        let Self {
            measurement,
            tags,
            fields,
            timestamp,
        } = self;

        Ok(DataPoint {
            measurement,
            tags,
            fields,
            timestamp,

View on GitHub (pinned to 06200ef96b)