prestodb/presto · error · PrestoException

GENERIC_USER_ERROR

GENERIC_USER_ERROR

Error message

invalid joda pattern '%s' passed as format hint for column '%s'

What it means

CustomDateTimeJsonFieldDecoder's constructor requires a format hint and compiles it with Joda-Time's DateTimeFormat.forPattern. If the pattern string is not a valid Joda pattern, the IllegalArgumentException is converted to a PrestoException GENERIC_USER_ERROR with this message. It is a table-definition error caught at decoder construction time, before any data is read.

Source

Thrown at presto-record-decoder/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/decoder/json/CustomDateTimeJsonFieldDecoder.java:67

{
    private static final Set<Type> SUPPORTED_TYPES = ImmutableSet.of(DATE, TIME, TIME_WITH_TIME_ZONE, TIMESTAMP, TIMESTAMP_WITH_TIME_ZONE);

    private final DecoderColumnHandle columnHandle;
    private final DateTimeFormatter formatter;

    public CustomDateTimeJsonFieldDecoder(DecoderColumnHandle columnHandle)
    {
        this.columnHandle = requireNonNull(columnHandle, "columnHandle is null");
        if (!SUPPORTED_TYPES.contains(columnHandle.getType())) {
            throwUnsupportedColumnType(columnHandle);
        }

        checkArgument(columnHandle.getFormatHint() != null, "format hint not defined for column '%s'", columnHandle.getName());
        try {
            formatter = DateTimeFormat.forPattern(columnHandle.getFormatHint()).withLocale(Locale.ENGLISH).withZoneUTC();
        }
        catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            throw new PrestoException(
                    GENERIC_USER_ERROR,
                    format("invalid joda pattern '%s' passed as format hint for column '%s'", columnHandle.getFormatHint(), columnHandle.getName()));
        }
    }

    @Override
    public FieldValueProvider decode(JsonNode value)
    {
        return new CustomDateTimeJsonValueProvider(value, columnHandle, formatter);
    }

    public static class CustomDateTimeJsonValueProvider
            extends AbstractDateTimeJsonValueProvider
    {
        private final DateTimeFormatter formatter;

        public CustomDateTimeJsonValueProvider(JsonNode value, DecoderColumnHandle columnHandle, DateTimeFormatter formatter)
        {

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

Correct the format hint to valid Joda-Time pattern syntax (yyyy, MM, dd, HH, mm, ss; quote literals with single quotes)
Test the pattern in isolation with DateTimeFormat.forPattern(...) before updating the table definition
Replace non-Joda tokens (e.g. 'HH24:MI:SS' -> 'HH:mm:ss', 'DD' -> 'dd')
Wrap literal text in the pattern in single quotes, e.g. "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss"

Example fix

// before
format hint: 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS'
// after
format hint: 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

boolean isValidJodaPattern(String pattern) {
    try {
        org.joda.time.format.DateTimeFormat.forPattern(pattern);
        return true;
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
        return false;
    }
}

Try / catch

try {
    CsvColumnDecoder d = new CsvColumnDecoder(columnHandles); // or json decoder construction
} catch (PrestoException e) {
    if (e.getErrorCode().getName().equals("GENERIC_USER_ERROR") && e.getMessage().contains("invalid joda pattern")) {
        throw new TableConfigException("Fix format hint in table definition", e);
    }
    throw e;
}

Prevention

Validate format hints with DateTimeFormat.forPattern in CI before applying table DDL
Quote literal characters in patterns ('T', timezones) with single quotes
Use Joda docs tokens: yyyy MM dd HH mm ss — not SQL style HH24/MI/SS
Keep a tested library of approved patterns for common source formats

When it happens

Trigger: format hint contains invalid Joda pattern letters (e.g. 'YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss' misusing D vs d, or stray characters like unquoted 'T' or punctuation Joda treats as pattern letters); hint copied from a SimpleDateFormat or moment.js pattern incompatible with Joda syntax.

Common situations: Authors writing SQL-style 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS' formats; using 'DD' (day-of-year) instead of 'dd' (day-of-month); forgetting to quote literal text like 'T' or 'UTC' inside the pattern; porting patterns from other libraries (java.time mostly compatible, moment/chrony not).

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e57b572380617a48. Report an issue: GitHub.