prestodb/presto · error · IllegalArgumentException

Could not parse selected role:

Error message

Could not parse selected role: 

What it means

SelectedRole.valueOf parses the string form '<TYPE> <role>' (e.g. 'ROLE admin', 'NONE') using a regex PATTERN and throws IllegalArgumentException 'Could not parse selected role: <value>' when the string does not match. It is used to round-trip the toString representation back into a SelectedRole.

Source

Thrown at presto-spi/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/spi/security/SelectedRole.java:120

    @Override
    public String toString()
    {
        StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
        result.append(type);
        role.ifPresent(s -> result.append("{").append(s).append("}"));
        return result.toString();
    }

    public static SelectedRole valueOf(String value)
    {
        Matcher m = PATTERN.matcher(value);
        if (m.matches()) {
            Type type = Type.valueOf(m.group(1));
            Optional<String> role = Optional.ofNullable(m.group(3));
            return new SelectedRole(type, role);
        }
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Could not parse selected role: " + value);
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

1. Check the exact expected format in SelectedRole.toString and correct the input (e.g. 'ROLE admin')
2. Use SelectedRole(Type, Optional) construction directly instead of parsing ad-hoc strings
3. Handle legacy formats by normalizing separators/type names before calling valueOf
4. Wrap in try/catch and fall back to SelectedRole(Type.NONE, Optional.empty()) for unparseable legacy values

Example fix

// before
SelectedRole.valueOf("role=admin"); // throws
// after
SelectedRole.valueOf("ROLE admin");
// or safer:
try { sr = SelectedRole.valueOf(raw); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { sr = new SelectedRole(SelectedRole.Type.NONE, Optional.empty()); }

// validate format before parsing
if (!value.matches("(NONE|ALL|ROLE)( \\S+)?$")) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Bad SelectedRole string: " + value);
}

Optional<SelectedRole> tryParseSelectedRole(String value) {
    try {
        return Optional.of(SelectedRole.valueOf(value));
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
        return Optional.empty();
    }
}

try {
    return SelectedRole.valueOf(value);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    LOG.warn("Could not parse selected role '%s'; defaulting to NONE", value);
    return new SelectedRole(SelectedRole.Type.NONE, Optional.empty());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling SelectedRole.valueOf on a string not matching the PATTERN regex — e.g. missing type, unknown type name, wrong separator, empty string, or a value produced by a different/older serialization format.

Common situations: Internal tools storing SelectedRole strings in config/DB across Presto version upgrades where the format changed; manually typed values in properties files; interop with clients that serialize roles differently (e.g. 'ROLE:admin' instead of 'ROLE admin').

Related errors

• QualifiedObjectName should have exactly 3 parts, found %s: %
• Bad type signature: '%s'
• INVALID_FUNCTION_ARGUMENT
• Invalid day-time interval:
• Invalid year-month interval:

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/53e5a391e82486a4. Report an issue: GitHub.