pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleValueException

invalid hex digit ''.

Error message

invalid hex digit ''.

What it means

Character-level validation while decoding a hex string to bytes in the legacy Value hexDecode(): a character outside 0-9, A-F and a-f was encountered, so it cannot be mapped to a nibble. The offending character is interpolated into the message; a leading zero is assumed for odd-length input.

Solutions

1. Remove or correct the non-hexadecimal character in the input string
2. Validate/sanitize the hex string (regex [0-9a-fA-F]*) before decoding

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at core/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/compatibility/Value.java:3605 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/363b843ef07ad220. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at core/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/compatibility/Value.java:3605

    // we assume a leading 0 if the length is not even.
    if ( ( len % 2 ) == 1 ) {
      evenByte = false;
    }

    int nibble;
    int i, j;
    for ( i = 0, j = 0; i < len; i++ ) {
      char c = hexString.charAt( i );

      if ( ( c >= '0' ) && ( c <= '9' ) ) {
        nibble = c - '0';
      } else if ( ( c >= 'A' ) && ( c <= 'F' ) ) {
        nibble = c - 'A' + 0x0A;
      } else if ( ( c >= 'a' ) && ( c <= 'f' ) ) {
        nibble = c - 'a' + 0x0A;
      } else {
        throw new KettleValueException( "invalid hex digit '" + c + "'." );
      }

      if ( evenByte ) {
        nextByte = ( nibble << 4 );
      } else {
        nextByte += nibble;
        chArray[j] = (char) nextByte;
        j++;
      }

      evenByte = !evenByte;
    }
    setValue( new String( chArray ) );

    return this;
  }

  /**

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