pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · RuntimeException

The function call isCodepage requires 2 arguments.

Error message

The function call isCodepage requires 2 arguments.

What it means

isCodepage tests whether a byte array/string can be decoded with a given codepage. It requires exactly two arguments (the data and the codepage name); with any other count it throws this RuntimeException rather than returning a result. Note that decode failures inside the try block merely set bRC=false; only the wrong argument count throws.

Solutions

1. Call with exactly two arguments: isCodepage(data, 'UTF-8').
2. Supply the codepage name as a string, e.g. 'UTF-8', 'ISO-8859-1'.
3. If unsure of the encoding, test candidate codepages with separate two-argument calls.

Example fix

// before
var ok = isCodepage(rawBytes);
// after
var ok = isCodepage(rawBytes, 'ISO-8859-1');

if (arguments.length !== 2 || typeof codepage !== 'string') {
  throw new Error('isCodepage requires exactly 2 arguments: (data, codepage)');
}
var ok = isCodepage(data, codepage);

function isCodepageCall(d, c) { return d != null && typeof c === 'string' && c.length > 0; }

try {
  var ok = isCodepage(data, codepage);
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).indexOf('requires 2 arguments') !== -1) {
    throw new Error('Call isCodepage as isCodepage(data, codepageName)');
  } else { throw e; }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling isCodepage(data) with one argument, or isCodepage(data, 'UTF-8', extra) with three, from JavaScript in a Kettle script step.

Common situations: Forgetting the codepage name and relying on a default that does not exist; passing options objects as a third argument.

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 date2str requires 1, 2, 3, or 4 arguments.
• The function call dateAdd requires 3 arguments.
• The function call escapeHtml requires 1 argument.
• The function call escapeSQL requires 1 argument.
• The function call escapeXml requires 1 argument.

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8053e6f4c0e3ff85. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/script/ScriptAddedFunctions.java:734

    if ( ArgList.length == 2 ) {
      try {
        if ( isNull( ArgList, new int[] { 0, 1 } ) ) {
          return null;
        } else if ( isUndefined( ArgList, new int[] { 0, 1 } ) ) {
          return undefinedValue;
        }
        String strValueToCheck = (String) ArgList[0];
        String strCodePage = (String) ArgList[1];
        byte[] bytearray = strValueToCheck.getBytes();
        CharsetDecoder d = Charset.forName( strCodePage ).newDecoder();
        CharBuffer r = d.decode( ByteBuffer.wrap( bytearray ) );
        r.toString();
        bRC = true;
      } catch ( Exception e ) {
        bRC = false;
      }
    } else {
      throw new RuntimeException( "The function call isCodepage requires 2 arguments." );
    }
    return Boolean.valueOf( bRC );
  }

  public static String ltrim( ScriptEngine actualContext, Bindings actualObject, Object[] ArgList,
    Object FunctionContext ) {
    try {
      if ( ArgList.length == 1 ) {
        if ( isNull( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          return null;
        } else if ( isUndefined( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          return (String) undefinedValue;
        }
        String strValueToTrim = (String) ArgList[0];
        return strValueToTrim.replaceAll( "^\\s+", "" );
      } else {
        throw new RuntimeException( "The function call ltrim requires 1 argument." );
      }

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