pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

ExcelInput.Exception.InvalidTypeBoolean

ExcelInput.Exception.InvalidTypeBoolean

Error message

ExcelInput.Exception.InvalidTypeBoolean

What it means

ExcelInput.checkType() throws this KettleException when an Excel cell contains a BOOLEAN but the corresponding field's ValueMeta has an incompatible data type. Only String, None (unspecified), or Boolean target types can receive a boolean cell; anything else aborts row processing.

Solutions

1. Open the Excel Input step and change the field's Type to String, Boolean, or leave it unspecified
2. If the field must stay numeric, fix the source sheet so the column no longer contains TRUE/FALSE values
3. Add a conversion step (e.g. 'Value Mapper' or 'If') downstream after reading the boolean as String/Boolean
4. Re-run 'Preview rows' in the step dialog to confirm the detected cell type matches field types

Example fix

// before (field meta)
field: columnName=isActive, type=Integer
// after
field: columnName=isActive, type=Boolean   // or String, then convert downstream

int cellType = cell.getType(); // KCellType.BOOLEAN etc.
int fieldType = v.getType();
boolean ok = cellType == KCellType.BOOLEAN
  && ( fieldType == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_STRING
    || fieldType == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_NONE
    || fieldType == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_BOOLEAN );
if ( !ok ) { /* fix field type in step metadata first */ }

boolean acceptsBooleanCell( ValueMetaInterface v ) {
  int t = v.getType();
  return t == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_STRING
    || t == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_NONE
    || t == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_BOOLEAN;
}

try {
  row = excelInput.fillRow( cells, ... );
} catch ( KettleException e ) {
  if ( e.getMessage().contains( "InvalidTypeBoolean" ) ) {
    // coerce field to String/Boolean in step metadata and rerun
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: fillRow() processing a boolean cell whose mapped field is defined in the step metadata as Integer, Number, Date, BigNumber, etc. — the declared field type in the Excel Input step does not accept booleans.

Common situations: Excel column contents changed after the step metadata was defined (TRUE/FALSE now appears where numbers used to be), or the field type was edited to Number while the sheet still emits TRUE/FALSE.

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

• ExcelInput.Exception.InvalidTypeNumber
• ExcelInput.Exception.InvalidTypeDate
• ExcelInput.Exception.InvalidTypeLabel
• GPLoadDataOutput.Exception.TypeNotSupported
• MondrianInputErrorUnhandledType

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/89657cb4673f3377. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/excel/core/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/excelinput/ExcelInput.java:324

    }
    // Add RootUri
    if ( !Utils.isEmpty( meta.getRootUriField() ) ) {
      r[rowIndex] = data.rootUriName;
      rowIndex++;
    }

    return r;
  }

  private void checkType( KCell cell, ValueMetaInterface v ) throws KettleException {
    if ( !meta.isStrictTypes() ) {
      return;
    }
    switch ( cell.getType() ) {
      case BOOLEAN:
        if ( !( v.getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_STRING || v.getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_NONE || v
          .getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_BOOLEAN ) ) {
          throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "ExcelInput.Exception.InvalidTypeBoolean", v
            .getTypeDesc() ) );
        }
        break;

      case DATE:
        if ( !( v.getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_STRING || v.getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_NONE || v
          .getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_DATE ) ) {
          throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "ExcelInput.Exception.InvalidTypeDate", cell
            .getContents(), v.getTypeDesc() ) );
        }
        break;

      case LABEL:
        if ( v.getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_BOOLEAN
          || v.getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_DATE || v.getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_INTEGER
          || v.getType() == ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_NUMBER ) {
          throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "ExcelInput.Exception.InvalidTypeLabel", cell
            .getContents(), v.getTypeDesc() ) );

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)