prestodb/presto · error · SemanticException

DUPLICATE_PROPERTY

DUPLICATE_PROPERTY

Error message

Duplicate property: %s

What it means

A SemanticException raised by validateProperties during analysis of statements that accept properties (e.g. CREATE TABLE ... WITH (...), CREATE SESSION property lists). The same property name appears more than once in the property list, which is ambiguous, so analysis fails immediately with DUPLICATE_PROPERTY.

Source

Thrown at presto-main-base/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/sql/analyzer/StatementAnalyzer.java:1598

                    analyze(querySpecification, scope);

                    TableHandle tableHandle = metadata.getHandleVersion(session, tableName, Optional.empty())
                            .orElseThrow(() -> (new SemanticException(MISSING_TABLE, call, "Table '%s' does not exist", tableName)));
                    TableDataRewriteAnalysisContext tableDataRewriteAnalysisContext = new TableDataRewriteAnalysisContext(tableHandle, querySpecification, zOrderColumns);
                    analysis.setCallDistributedProcedureAnalysis(new Analysis.CallDistributedProcedureAnalysis(procedureType, values, Optional.of(tableDataRewriteAnalysisContext)));
                    break;
                default:
                    throw new PrestoException(StandardErrorCode.NOT_SUPPORTED, "Unsupported distributed procedure type: " + procedure.getType());
            }
            return createAndAssignScope(call, scope, Field.newUnqualified(Optional.empty(), "rows", BIGINT));
        }

        private void validateProperties(List<Property> properties, Optional<Scope> scope)
        {
            Set<String> propertyNames = new HashSet<>();
            for (Property property : properties) {
                if (!propertyNames.add(property.getName().getValue())) {
                    throw new SemanticException(DUPLICATE_PROPERTY, property, "Duplicate property: %s", property.getName().getValue());
                }
            }
            for (Property property : properties) {
                process(property, scope);
            }
        }

        private void validateColumns(Statement node, RelationType descriptor)
        {
            // verify that all column names are specified and unique
            // TODO: collect errors and return them all at once
            Set<String> names = new HashSet<>();
            for (Field field : descriptor.getVisibleFields()) {
                Optional<String> fieldName = field.getName();
                if (!fieldName.isPresent()) {
                    throw new SemanticException(COLUMN_NAME_NOT_SPECIFIED, node, "Column name not specified at position %s", descriptor.indexOf(field) + 1);
                }
                if (!names.add(fieldName.get())) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

  1. Remove the duplicate property from the WITH/properties clause, keeping a single definition
  2. If SQL is generated, deduplicate keys before rendering (e.g. use a Map so later values overwrite earlier ones deliberately)
  3. Re-run the statement after fixing the clause

Example fix

// before
CREATE TABLE hive.web.page_views WITH (partitioned_by = ARRAY['ds'], format = 'ORC', format = 'ORC') AS ...

// after
CREATE TABLE hive.web.page_views WITH (partitioned_by = ARRAY['ds'], format = 'ORC') AS ...
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

Set<String> seen = new HashSet<>();
for (Property p : properties) {
    if (!seen.add(p.getName().getValue())) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Duplicate property: " + p.getName().getValue());
    }
}

Try / catch

try {
    session.execute(ddlSql);
} catch (SemanticException e) {
    if (e.getCode() == SemanticErrorCode.DUPLICATE_PROPERTY) {
        // deduplicate WITH clause and retry once
    } else throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Running DDL such as `CREATE TABLE t WITH (format = 'ORC', format = 'PARQUET')` or ALTER/CREATE with two properties sharing the same name (property.getName().getValue() repeated in the List<Property>).

Common situations: Programmatic DDL generation concatenating property maps/lists without deduplication; copy-pasted WITH clauses; template-generated SQL where a default property plus a user property collide.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a44865e445637b8f. Report an issue: GitHub.