pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error

Error in isEmpty function:

Error message

Error in isEmpty function: 

What it means

isEmpty(value) tests whether a string/value is empty. This handler wraps any unexpected exception thrown while evaluating the check (e.g. operating on an object type it cannot handle) and rethrows it as a Rhino runtime error prefixed with 'Error in isEmpty function: '. The suffix message from e.getMessage() identifies the underlying cause.

Solutions

1. Convert the argument to string first: isEmpty(value == null ? '' : value.toString()).
2. Null-check before the call since the wrapped helper may not accept all null shapes in your version.
3. Read the e.getMessage() suffix in the error to identify the actual failing operation.
4. Normalize field types in a prior step (Select values / type cast) before scripting.

Example fix

// before
var e = isEmpty(myBigDec) ;
// after
var e = isEmpty(myBigDec == null ? '' : myBigDec.toString());

function safeIsEmpty(v) { if (v == null) return true; try { return isEmpty(v.toString()); } catch (e) { return false; } }

function isStringish(v) { return v == null || typeof v === 'string' || (v != null && typeof v.toString === 'function'); }

try { e = isEmpty(val); } catch (ex) { Logger.LogError('isEmpty failed: ' + ex.message); e = true; /* treat as empty */ }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling isEmpty with a value whose evaluation throws — e.g. certain non-string Java objects passed from previous steps, or conversion failures on the argument inside the try block while the argument count itself was valid.

Common situations: Passing a Java object (e.g. BigDecimal, binary field) rather than a string; null-plus-method-chain mistakes nearby; upstream field type changes after transformation edits.

Understand the failure class

Background: Type mismatch errors: IllegalArgumentException, TypeError and type guards across 150 open-source libraries — this error's family across 150 libraries.

Related errors

• Could not convert to local format.
• Could not convert to the given format.
• ScriptValuesMod.Log.CouldNotAddDefaultConstants
• The function call getLastModifiedTime is not valid.
• The function call isEmpty is not valid

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e50890f894180f7e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/scriptvalues_mod/ScriptValuesAddedFunctions.java:2669

  public static Boolean isEmpty( Context actualContext, Scriptable actualObject, Object[] ArgList,
    Function FunctionContext ) {
    if ( ArgList.length == 1 ) {
      try {
        if ( isUndefined( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          throw new Exception( ArgList[0] + " is  undefined!" );
        }
        if ( isNull( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          return Boolean.TRUE;
        }
        if ( Context.toString( ArgList[0] ).length() == 0 ) {
          return Boolean.TRUE;
        } else {
          return Boolean.FALSE;
        }

      } catch ( Exception e ) {
        throw Context.reportRuntimeError( "Error in isEmpty function: " + e.getMessage() );
      }
    } else {
      throw Context.reportRuntimeError( "The function call isEmpty is not valid" );
    }
  }

  public static Boolean isMailValid( Context actualContext, Scriptable actualObject, Object[] ArgList,
    Function FunctionContext ) {
    Boolean isValid;
    if ( ArgList.length == 1 ) {
      try {
        if ( isUndefined( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          throw new Exception( ArgList[0] + " is  undefined!" );
        }
        if ( isNull( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          return Boolean.FALSE;
        }
        if ( Context.toString( ArgList[0] ).length() == 0 ) {

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)