pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleStepException

TableCompareMeta.Exception.NrRecordsCompareFieldNotSpecified

Error message

TableCompareMeta.Exception.NrRecordsCompareFieldNotSpecified

What it means

Third check in TableCompareMeta.getFields(): the 'number of records compare table' output field (nrRecordsCompareField) is not specified. Thrown after the errors-field and reference-records-field checks pass.

Solutions

Set the 'nr records compare field' in the step dialog (e.g. 'nr_records_compare').
In code, call meta.setNrRecordsCompareField("nr_records_compare").
Fix the .ktr XML <nr_records_compare_field> tag.

Example fix

// before
meta.setNrRecordsReferenceField( "nr_records_reference" );
// after
meta.setNrRecordsReferenceField( "nr_records_reference" );
meta.setNrRecordsCompareField( "nr_records_compare" );

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if ( meta.getNrRecordsCompareField() == null || meta.getNrRecordsCompareField().isEmpty() ) {
  meta.setNrRecordsCompareField( "nr_records_compare" );
}

Try / catch

try {
  meta.getFields( ... );
} catch ( KettleStepException e ) {
  if ( e.getMessage().contains( "NrRecordsCompareFieldNotSpecified" ) ) {
    meta.setNrRecordsCompareField( "nr_records_compare" );
  }
}

Prevention

Use a checklist of the six required output fields when configuring TableCompare programmatically.
Copy configuration from a working reference transformation.
Validate metadata via getFields() in a smoke test before scheduling the job.

When it happens

Trigger: getFields(...) invoked with nrRecordsCompareField null/empty — thrown at TableCompareMeta.java:381.

Common situations: Programmatic metadata construction missing this setter; hand-edited .ktr XML; transformations copied from older step versions that lacked this output.

Understand the failure class

Background: "must not be empty", "cannot be empty" — required-field validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5126013f506a8000. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/tablecompare/TableCompareMeta.java:381

    TableCompareMeta retval = (TableCompareMeta) super.clone();

    return retval;
  }

  @Override
  public void getFields( Bowl bowl, RowMetaInterface inputRowMeta, String origin, RowMetaInterface[] info,
    StepMeta nextStep, VariableSpace space, Repository repository, IMetaStore metaStore ) throws KettleStepException {

    if ( Utils.isEmpty( nrErrorsField ) ) {
      throw new KettleStepException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "TableCompareMeta.Exception.NrErrorsFieldIsNotSpecified" ) );
    }
    if ( Utils.isEmpty( nrRecordsReferenceField ) ) {
      throw new KettleStepException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "TableCompareMeta.Exception.NrRecordsReferenceFieldNotSpecified" ) );
    }
    if ( Utils.isEmpty( nrRecordsCompareField ) ) {
      throw new KettleStepException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "TableCompareMeta.Exception.NrRecordsCompareFieldNotSpecified" ) );
    }
    if ( Utils.isEmpty( nrErrorsLeftJoinField ) ) {
      throw new KettleStepException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "TableCompareMeta.Exception.NrErrorsLeftJoinFieldNotSpecified" ) );
    }
    if ( Utils.isEmpty( nrErrorsInnerJoinField ) ) {
      throw new KettleStepException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "TableCompareMeta.Exception.NrErrorsInnerJoinFieldNotSpecified" ) );
    }
    if ( Utils.isEmpty( nrErrorsRightJoinField ) ) {
      throw new KettleStepException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "TableCompareMeta.Exception.NrErrorsRightJoinFieldNotSpecified" ) );
    }

    ValueMetaInterface nrErrorsValueMeta = new ValueMetaInteger( nrErrorsField );
    nrErrorsValueMeta.setLength( 9 );
    nrErrorsValueMeta.setOrigin( origin );

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)