influxdata/influxdb · error · CodecError

no record batches to convert

Error message

no record batches to convert

What it means

CodecError::NoRecordBatches, raised during RecordBatch-to-Parquet serialisation when the result stream yielded zero batches. The library refuses to write a Parquet file because there is nothing to encode, and a subsequent upload would be meaningless. Doc comment: 'The result stream contained no batches.'

Solutions

1. Check why the DataFusion plan produced no batches (inspect the logical/physical plan and predicates)
2. Handle the empty-input case in the caller before invoking serialisation, e.g. skip writing or write an explicit empty sentinel
3. Fix stream wiring so the correct batch stream is passed to the Parquet writer
4. If empty results are legitimate, avoid the parquet upload path for them

Example fix

// before
let batches: Vec<RecordBatch> = stream.try_collect().await?;
write_parquet(batches.into_iter())?;
// after
let batches: Vec<RecordBatch> = stream.try_collect().await?;
if batches.is_empty() {
    return Ok(None); // skip writing an empty file
}
write_parquet(batches.into_iter())?;

let batches: Vec<RecordBatch> = stream.try_collect().await?;
if batches.is_empty() {
    return Ok(None); // nothing to serialise
}

match res {
    Err(CodecError::NoRecordBatches) => info!("query produced no batches; skipping parquet write"),
    other => other?,
}

When it happens

Trigger: Executing a query plan whose stream completes without ever yielding a RecordBatch and then passing that stream to the Parquet serialisation/upload path.

Common situations: Queries with filters matching no data combined with upstream logic that skips empty batches entirely; a plan that short-circuits (EmptyRelation) so the stream is empty from the start; wiring bugs where the wrong stream is fed to the writer.

Understand the failure class

Background: EmptyResultError / "no results found": when an API or scraper succeeds but returns zero rows — this error's family across 9 libraries.

Related errors

• no rows to serialise
• Error creating _field record batch
• failed to write parquet file
• parquet error
• The Record batch is empty

AI-assisted analysis of influxdata/influxdb@06200ef96b (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b9b05a12a2439403. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at core/parquet_file/src/serialize.rs:56

use crate::{
    metadata::{IoxMetadata, METADATA_KEY},
    storage::ParquetUploadInput,
    writer::TrackedMemoryArrowWriter,
};

/// Parquet row group write size
pub const ROW_GROUP_WRITE_SIZE: usize = 1024 * 1024;

/// ensure read and write work well together
const _: () = assert!(ROW_GROUP_WRITE_SIZE.is_multiple_of(BATCH_SIZE));

/// [`RecordBatch`] to Parquet serialisation errors.
///
/// [`RecordBatch`]: arrow::record_batch::RecordBatch
#[derive(Debug, Error)]
pub enum CodecError {
    /// The result stream contained no batches.
    #[error("no record batches to convert")]
    NoRecordBatches,

    /// The result stream contained at least one [`RecordBatch`] and all
    /// instances yielded by the stream contained 0 rows.
    ///
    /// This would result in an empty file being uploaded to object store.
    ///
    /// [`RecordBatch`]: arrow::record_batch::RecordBatch
    #[error("no rows to serialise")]
    NoRows,

    /// A DataFusion error during the plan execution.
    ///
    /// Of note: a ResourcesExhaused error likely means the buffer
    /// used for parquet data became too large.
    #[error(transparent)]
    DataFusion(Box<DataFusionError>),

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