languagetool-org/languagetool · error · RuntimeException

Format error in file ${path}, line: ${line}

Error message

Format error in file ${path}, line: ${line}

What it means

AbstractRepeatedWordsRule.loadWords parses a repeated-words data file line by line; each line must contain a word and at least one semicolon-separated attribute (or a word=... mapping plus ;parts). This RuntimeException is thrown when a line's structure doesn't match either expected format (e.g. more than one main part but no valid word, or too few ';'-separated parts).

Source

Thrown at languagetool-core/src/main/java/org/languagetool/rules/AbstractRepeatedWordsRule.java:212

        String postag = null;
        String chunk = null;
        String word;
        if (mainParts.length == 2) {
          parts = mainParts[1].split(";");
          word = mainParts[0];
          String[] wordPosChunk = word.split("/");
          word = wordPosChunk[0];
          if (wordPosChunk.length > 1) {
            postag = wordPosChunk[1];
          }
          if (wordPosChunk.length > 2) {
            chunk = wordPosChunk[2];
          }
        } else if (mainParts.length == 1) {
          parts = line.split(";");
          word = "";
        } else {
          throw new RuntimeException("Format error in file " + path + ", line: " + line);
        }
        if (word.isEmpty() && parts.length < 2 || !word.isEmpty() && parts.length < 1) {
          throw new RuntimeException("Format error in file " + path + ", line: " + line);
        }
        if (!word.isEmpty()) {
          if (!map.containsKey(word)) {
            SynonymsData synonymsData = new SynonymsData(Arrays.asList(parts), postag, chunk);
            map.put(word, synonymsData);
          } else {
            throw new RuntimeException("Word found in more than one line. \"" + word + "\" in line: " + line);
          }
        } else {
          for (String key : parts) {
            List<String> values = new ArrayList<>();
            for (String value : parts) {
              if (!value.equals(key)) {
                values.add(value);
              }

View on GitHub (pinned to 2e990059ce)

Solutions

1. Open the file named in the message at the reported line and fix it to match the expected format (word;... with at least the required number of ';'-separated fields).
2. Validate every line has the expected separators before deploying the data file (e.g. a CI check that each non-comment line contains the required ';').
3. If the file came from another language variant or older LT version, regenerate it from a current template instead of hand-editing.

Example fix

// before (malformed data line in the words file)
wordwithnoparts
// after
wordwithnoparts;someattribute

for (String line : Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(path))) {
  if (line.isEmpty() || line.startsWith("#")) continue;
  String[] mainParts = line.split("=", 2);
  String[] parts = mainParts[mainParts.length == 1 ? 0 : 1].split(";");
  boolean wordEmpty = mainParts.length == 1;
  if (wordEmpty ? parts.length < 2 : parts.length < 1) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("Malformed repeated-words line: " + line);
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling loadWords on a data file containing a line that splits into mainParts of length 0 or >=2 while a word was already parsed, or a line that yields fewer parts than required (word empty with <2 parts, word non-empty with <1 part).

Common situations: Editing or translating a repeated-words rules file (e.g. spelling_xx.txt-style data) and inserting a malformed line; copying data files between language variants with divergent formats; stray punctuation or a missing semicolon in a hand-edited line.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

Related errors

• Could not load simple replacement data from: " + path + ". E
• No IssueType found for name '" + name + "'. Valid values: "
• The number of forms and postags has to be the same in disamb
• Set 'no', 'regexp' and 'postag_regexp' for filter PartialPos
• Got " + matcher.groupCount() + " groups for regex '" + patte

AI-assisted analysis of languagetool-org/languagetool@2e990059ce (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/151aea7d25d159b8. Report an issue: GitHub.