pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · RuntimeException

The function call year requires 1 argument.

Error message

The function call year requires 1 argument.

What it means

year(date) returns the year of a java.util.Date as a Double via Calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR). It requires exactly one argument; with any other count it throws this RuntimeException, and any other exception inside the try is rethrown by the outer catch as e.toString().

Solutions

1. Call year() with exactly one Date-typed argument.
2. Convert string dates first, e.g. year(str2date(dateString, "yyyy-MM-dd")).
3. Guard against null dates before calling year().
4. Read e.toString() in the log to distinguish argument-count vs cast failures.

Example fix

// before
var y = year(dateField.getString());
// after
var y = year(dateField.getDate());

var y = (d != null) ? year(d) : null;

function isKettleDate(v) { return v != null && v instanceof java.util.Date; }

try {
  var y = year(d);
} catch (e) {
  // message is either the arity error or e.toString() from the inner catch
  Logger.LogBasic("year failed: " + e.message);
  y = null;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling year() with zero arguments or two-plus arguments in a Script step; passing a non-Date first argument (ClassCastException when cast to java.util.Date); passing null.

Common situations: Passing a string date instead of a Date field; passing a numeric field; forgetting that Kettle Date fields arrive as java.util.Date objects.

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 month requires 1 argument.
• The function call quarter requires 1 argument.
• The function call week requires 1 argument.
• The function call lpad requires 3 arguments.
• The function call rpad requires 3 arguments.

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a0a5efce7761635a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/script/ScriptAddedFunctions.java:841

    }
    return null;
  }

  public static Object year( ScriptEngine actualContext, Bindings actualObject, Object[] ArgList,
    Object FunctionContext ) {
    try {
      if ( ArgList.length == 1 ) {
        if ( isNull( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          return new Double( Double.NaN );
        } else if ( isUndefined( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          return undefinedValue;
        }
        java.util.Date dArg1 = (java.util.Date) ArgList[0];
        Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
        cal.setTime( dArg1 );
        return new Double( cal.get( Calendar.YEAR ) );
      } else {
        throw new RuntimeException( "The function call year requires 1 argument." );
      }
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new RuntimeException( e.toString() );
    }
  }

  public static Object month( ScriptEngine actualContext, Bindings actualObject, Object[] ArgList,
    Object FunctionContext ) {
    try {
      if ( ArgList.length == 1 ) {
        if ( isNull( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          return new Double( Double.NaN );
        } else if ( isUndefined( ArgList[0] ) ) {
          return undefinedValue;
        }
        java.util.Date dArg1 = (java.util.Date) ArgList[0];
        Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
        cal.setTime( dArg1 );

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