json-path/JsonPath · error · InvalidPathException

Not enough predicates supplied for filter [] at position

Error message

Not enough predicates supplied for filter [] at position 

What it means

InvalidPathException thrown by readPlaceholderToken when a filter path uses positional '?' placeholders (e.g. [?,?]) but fewer predicates were pushed onto filterStack than there are comma-separated placeholder tokens. Each '?' must correspond to a predicate supplied earlier via Filter.predicate(...).

Source

Thrown at json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/path/PathCompiler.java:430

        }
        char nextSignificantChar = path.nextSignificantChar(questionmarkIndex);
        if (nextSignificantChar != CLOSE_SQUARE_BRACKET && nextSignificantChar != COMMA) {
            return false;
        }

        int expressionBeginIndex = path.position() + 1;
        int expressionEndIndex = path.nextIndexOf(expressionBeginIndex, CLOSE_SQUARE_BRACKET);

        if (expressionEndIndex == -1) {
            return false;
        }

        String expression = path.subSequence(expressionBeginIndex, expressionEndIndex).toString();

        String[] tokens = expression.split(",");

        if (filterStack.size() < tokens.length) {
            throw new InvalidPathException("Not enough predicates supplied for filter [" + expression + "] at position " + path.position());
        }

        Collection<Predicate> predicates = new ArrayList<Predicate>();
        for (String token : tokens) {
            token = token != null ? token.trim() : null;
            if (!"?".equals(token == null ? "" : token)) {
                throw new InvalidPathException("Expected '?' but found " + token);
            }
            predicates.add(filterStack.pop());
        }

        appender.appendPathToken(PathTokenFactory.createPredicatePathToken(predicates));

        path.setPosition(expressionEndIndex + 1);

        return path.currentIsTail() || readNextToken(appender);
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 62a4c9f0f6)

Solutions

1. Supply one predicate (Filter.filter(...) or Criteria) per '?' placeholder in the path
2. Remove extra '?' tokens from the path that have no matching predicate
3. Count '?' occurrences in the path and assert the predicate array length matches before querying

Example fix

// before
JsonPath.query("$..book[?,?]", filterA)
// after
JsonPath.query("$..book[?,?]", filterA, filterB)

long placeholders = path.chars().filter(c -> c == '?').count();
if (placeholders != predicates.size()) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Path has " + placeholders + " placeholders but " + predicates.size() + " predicates supplied");
}

try {
    return JsonPath.query(path, predicates.toArray());
} catch (InvalidPathException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Not enough predicates")) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Predicate count mismatch for path: " + path);
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling JsonPath.query(path, predicate) with fewer predicate arguments than '?' placeholders in the path, e.g. path "$..book[?(@.a)][?,?]" style patterns with only one predicate supplied for two '?' tokens.

Common situations: API migration where predicates were removed from the call but the path string kept multiple placeholders; building paths dynamically and miscounting placeholders.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Expected '?' but found
• Filter: %s can not be applied to primitives. Current context
• Could not find matching close quote for %s when parsing : %s
• Could not find matching close for %s when parsing regex in :
• Expected character: %c

AI-assisted analysis of json-path/JsonPath@62a4c9f0f6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8f630edf273f0689. Report an issue: GitHub.