pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error

The function call dateDiff requires 3 arguments.

Error message

The function call dateDiff requires 3 arguments.

What it means

dateDiff is a Kettle Rhino extension function that computes the difference between two dates in a given unit (y, M, d, h, m, s). It requires exactly 3 arguments: two dates and the unit string. With any other argument count it throws this RuntimeError.

Solutions

1. Call with three arguments: dateDiff(date1, date2, 'd') where the unit is one of y, M, d, h, m, s
2. Ensure the unit string is present and quoted
3. If dates may be null, check them before calling to avoid the wrapper exception path

Example fix

// before
var days = dateDiff(dateA, dateB);
// after
var days = dateDiff(dateA, dateB, 'd');

if (arguments.length !== 3) throw new Error('dateDiff(date1, date2, unit) requires 3 arguments');
if (['y','M','d','h','m','s'].indexOf(unit) < 0) throw new Error('bad unit');

try { var d = dateDiff(a, b, unit); } catch (e) { // handle missing unit
  throw new Error('dateDiff misuse: ' + e.message); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling dateDiff with 2 or 4 arguments, e.g. forgetting the unit ('d') or mistakenly passing separate year/month/day fields.

Common situations: Scripts migrated from JavaScript engines with different dateDiff signatures; the unit argument dropped during copy-paste; confusion between Kettle's dateDiff and spreadsheet-style datediff.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• The function call dateAdd requires 3 arguments.
• The function call getNextWorkingDay requires 1 argument.
• The function call fillString requires 2 arguments.
• The function call fireToDB requires 2 arguments.
• The function call getDayNumber requires 2 arguments.

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b15457a4e132fa32. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/scriptvalues_mod/ScriptValuesAddedFunctions.java:620

            return new Double( iDays / 7 );
          } else if ( strType.equals( "ss" ) ) {
            return new Double( ( ( endL - startL ) / 1000 ) );
          } else if ( strType.equals( "mi" ) ) {
            return new Double( ( ( endL - startL ) / 60000 ) );
          } else if ( strType.equals( "hh" ) ) {
            return new Double( ( ( endL - startL ) / 3600000 ) );
          } else {
            return new Double( ( ( endL - startL ) / 86400000 ) );
          }
          /*
           * End Bugfix
           */
        }
      } catch ( Exception e ) {
        throw Context.reportRuntimeError( e.toString() );
      }
    } else {
      throw Context.reportRuntimeError( "The function call dateDiff requires 3 arguments." );
    }
  }

  /**
   * <p>Check if DateDiff should compensate for Local time based on the value of a Kettle property ({@link
   * Const#KETTLE_DATEDIFF_DST_AWARE}).</p>
   * <p>This influences calculations where the period between the given dates includes a DST change.</p>
   * <p>Returning {@code true} means that the difference should be done using the dates as local time; returning {@code
   * false}, means that dates should be used as UTC.</p>
   *
   * @return {@code true} if it is to compensate and {@code false} otherwise
   * @see Const#KETTLE_DATEDIFF_DST_AWARE
   */
  protected static boolean compensateForLocalTime() {
    String dstAware =
      Const.NVL( System.getProperty( Const.KETTLE_DATEDIFF_DST_AWARE ), Const.KETTLE_DATEDIFF_DST_AWARE_DEFAULT );

    return Const.KETTLE_DATEDIFF_DST_AWARE_DEFAULT.equals( dstAware );

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