pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · RuntimeException

The function call isFile is not valid.

Error message

The function call isFile is not valid.

What it means

Thrown by ScriptAddedFunctions.isFile when the argument list does not have the valid shape for the function. isFile expects exactly one argument (the path string); any other count triggers 'The function call isFile is not valid.' The same outer catch also rethrows unrelated exceptions as e.toString() at this site.

Solutions

1. Call isFile with exactly one string path argument.
2. Remove extra arguments that this function does not accept.
3. If the message is e.toString() instead, inspect it for the underlying exception cause.

Example fix

// before
 var ok = isFile(path, throwIfMissing);
// after
 var ok = isFile(path);

if (typeof path === 'string' && path.length > 0) {
  var ok = isFile(path);
}

function isNonEmptyString(v) { return typeof v === 'string' && v.length > 0; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling isFile() with no arguments, with two or more arguments, or with a null ArgList; the outer catch(Exception) branch also surfaces any other unexpected exception here.

Common situations: Refactorings that added a second parameter, dynamic argument arrays that end up empty, or calls copied from other ScriptAddedFunctions variants with different signatures.

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 copyFileis not valid.
• The function call getFileSize is not valid.
• [ + ArgList[0] + ] is not a file!
• file [ + ArgList[0] + ] can not be found!
• ] is not a file!

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/82d8d041f9e7d89c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/script/ScriptAddedFunctions.java:2161

            }
          } else {
            throw new RuntimeException( "file [" + ArgList[0] + "] can not be found!" );
          }
          return isafile;
        } catch ( IOException e ) {
          throw new RuntimeException( "The function call is File throw an error : " + e.toString() );
        } finally {
          if ( file != null ) {
            try {
              file.close();
            } catch ( Exception e ) {
              // Ignore errors
            }
          }
        }

      } else {
        throw new RuntimeException( "The function call isFile is not valid." );
      }
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new RuntimeException( e.toString() );
    }
  }

  public static boolean isFolder( Bowl bowl, ScriptEngine actualContext, Bindings actualObject, Object[] ArgList,
    Object FunctionContext ) {
    try {
      if ( ArgList.length == 1 && !isNull( ArgList[0] ) && !isUndefined( ArgList[0] ) ) {
        if ( ArgList[0].equals( null ) ) {
          return false;
        }
        FileObject file = null;

        try {
          // Source file
          file = KettleVFS.getInstance( bowl ).getFileObject( (String) ArgList[0] );

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)