pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · RuntimeException

Unhandled data type

Error message

Unhandled data type '{valueMetaName}'

What it means

Inside the row-reading callback, the switch over the SAS column type falls through to default for any type the step does not explicitly handle, throwing a RuntimeException naming the unhandled value meta type. Only the types coded in the switch (character, numeric, etc.) are supported.

Solutions

  1. Inspect the file's column types and re-export the offending column as a supported type (character or numeric).
  2. Exclude the unsupported column from the file or from the selected output fields.
  3. Patch the step's switch to map the type to an appropriate Kettle ValueMeta type.

Example fix

// before: default: throw new RuntimeException("Unhandled data type '" + ValueMetaFactory.getValueMetaName(type));
// after: case TYPE_DATE: row[outputIndex++] = value; break;
//        default: throw new RuntimeException(...);
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Only feed files whose columns map to supported types (CHARACTER/NUMERIC)
for (SasField col : sasColumns(file)) {
  if (col.getType() != SasType.CHARACTER && col.getType() != SasType.NUMERIC)
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported SAS column type " + col.getType() + " on " + col.getName());
}

Try / catch

try {
  // execute transformation
} catch (RuntimeException e) {
  if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().startsWith("Unhandled data type")) {
    // exclude/re-type the offending column and re-export the SAS file
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: A SAS file contains a column whose mapped type (from SasInputHelper) is not covered by the switch statement in row() — e.g. an unexpected or extended SAS data type mapped to an unsupported Kettle type.

Common situations: Reading SAS files produced by tools or SAS versions emitting column types the step does not map; unusual column kinds (dates stored as exotic types, binary columns) in the file.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b7745632f418280c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/sasinput/SasInput.java:200

          // Only pick those fields that we're interested in.
          //
          int outputIndex = getInputRowMeta().size();
          for ( int i = 0; i < data.fieldIndexes.size(); i++ ) {
            int fieldIndex = data.fieldIndexes.get( i );
            int type = data.fileLayout.getValueMeta( fieldIndex ).getType();
            switch ( type ) {
              case ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_STRING:
                row[outputIndex++] = rowData[fieldIndex];
                break;
              case ValueMetaInterface.TYPE_NUMBER:
                Double value = (Double) rowData[fieldIndex];
                if ( value.equals( Double.NaN ) ) {
                  value = null;
                }
                row[outputIndex++] = value;
                break;
              default:
                throw new RuntimeException( "Unhandled data type '" + ValueMetaFactory.getValueMetaName( type ) );
            }
          }

          // Convert the data type of the new data to the requested data types
          //
          convertData( data.fileLayout, row, data.outputRowMeta );

          // Pass along the row to further steps...
          //
          putRow( data.outputRowMeta, row );

          // System.out.println(rowNumber+" ---- passed row : "+Arrays.toString(rowData));

          return !isStopped();
        } catch ( Exception e ) {
          throw new RuntimeException( "There was an error reading from SAS7BAT file '" + filename + "'", e );
        }
      }

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)