pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · InvocationTargetException

Couldn't find any rows because of an error :

Error message

Couldn't find any rows because of an error :

What it means

GetPreviewTableProgressDialog runs db.getFirstRows(tableName, limit, monitor) in a background thread to preview a table's rows. If a KettleException is thrown while querying, it is wrapped in an InvocationTargetException with the message 'Couldn't find any rows because of an error : ' plus the exception details.

Solutions

  1. Inspect the cause of the InvocationTargetException for the underlying SQL error and correct the table name/schema.
  2. Verify the table still exists and the connected user has SELECT privileges on it.
  3. Reconnect (test the DatabaseMeta connection) and retry the preview.
  4. If the preview consistently fails with large tables, reduce the preview row limit.

Example fix

// before
rows = db.getFirstRows( tableName, limit, new ProgressMonitorAdapter( monitor ) );
// after
if ( db.checkTableExists( tableName ) ) {
  rows = db.getFirstRows( tableName, limit, new ProgressMonitorAdapter( monitor ) );
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// confirm table exists before preview
Database db = new Database( loggingObject, dbMeta );
db.connect();
boolean exists = db.checkTableExists( tableName );
db.disconnect();

Try / catch

try {
  rows = new GetPreviewTableProgressDialog( shell, loggingObject, dbMeta, tableName ).open();
} catch ( InvocationTargetException e ) {
  logError( "Preview failed: " + e.getCause(), e.getCause() );
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Opening the table preview dialog when the SQL select against the table fails: bad table name, dropped table, connection loss, or driver-level SQL error inside getFirstRows().

Common situations: Previewing a table after it was renamed/dropped by another user; previewing tables in a schema the connected user cannot read; network interruption during preview in Spoon's 'Preview' / 'Browse tables' feature.

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

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/832195ce1bb3ee77. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at ui/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/ui/core/database/dialog/GetPreviewTableProgressDialog.java:77

    this.tableName = dbInfo.getQuotedSchemaTableCombination( schemaName, tableName );
    this.limit = limit;
  }

  public List<Object[]> open() {
    IRunnableWithProgress op = new IRunnableWithProgress() {
      public void run( IProgressMonitor monitor ) throws InvocationTargetException, InterruptedException {
        db = new Database( Spoon.loggingObject, dbMeta );
        try {
          db.connect();

          if ( limit > 0 ) {
            db.setQueryLimit( limit );
          }

          rows = db.getFirstRows( tableName, limit, new ProgressMonitorAdapter( monitor ) );
          rowMeta = db.getReturnRowMeta();
        } catch ( KettleException e ) {
          throw new InvocationTargetException( e, "Couldn't find any rows because of an error :" + e.toString() );
        } finally {
          db.close();
        }
      }
    };

    try {
      final ProgressMonitorDialog pmd = new ProgressMonitorDialog( shell );
      // Run something in the background to cancel active database queries, forecably if needed!
      Runnable run = new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
          IProgressMonitor monitor = pmd.getProgressMonitor();
          while ( pmd.getShell() == null || ( !pmd.getShell().isDisposed() && !monitor.isCanceled() ) ) {
            try {
              Thread.sleep( 100 );
            } catch ( InterruptedException e ) {
              // Ignore
            }

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)