prestodb/presto · error · SQLFeatureNotSupportedException

getCursorName

Error message

getCursorName

What it means

getCursorName is not supported: Presto queries are non-positional, forward-only, unnamed result streams, so there is no cursor name to return. PrestoResultSet throws SQLFeatureNotSupportedException unconditionally. The JDBC cursor-name mechanism (used with positioned UPDATE/DELETE) does not map to Presto's execution model.

Source

Thrown at presto-jdbc/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/jdbc/PrestoResultSet.java:504

            throws SQLException
    {
        checkOpen();
        return warningsManager.getWarnings();
    }

    @Override
    public void clearWarnings()
            throws SQLException
    {
        checkOpen();
        warningsManager.clearWarnings();
    }

    @Override
    public String getCursorName()
            throws SQLException
    {
        throw new SQLFeatureNotSupportedException("getCursorName");
    }

    @Override
    public ResultSetMetaData getMetaData()
            throws SQLException
    {
        return resultSetMetaData;
    }

    @Override
    public Object getObject(int columnIndex)
            throws SQLException
    {
        ColumnInfo columnInfo = columnInfo(columnIndex);
        switch (columnInfo.getColumnType()) {
            case Types.DATE:
                return getDate(columnIndex);
            case Types.TIME:

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

  1. Remove the getCursorName call — positioned updates via cursor name are impossible in Presto by design
  2. Perform updates with explicit keyed SQL statements (WHERE pk = ?) instead of positioned updates
  3. Check ResultSetMetaData/DatabaseMetaData capabilities before invoking cursor-based APIs

Example fix

// before
String cursor = rs.getCursorName();
stmt.executeUpdate("DELETE FROM t WHERE CURRENT OF " + cursor);
// after
stmt.executeUpdate("DELETE FROM t WHERE id = ?", rs.getLong("id")); // use explicit key predicates
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// positioned updates are impossible in Presto; detect the driver before any cursor-name usage
if (jdbcUrl.startsWith("jdbc:presto:")) {
    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Cursor names / positioned updates are not supported by Presto");
}

Try / catch

try {
    String cursor = rs.getCursorName();
} catch (SQLFeatureNotSupportedException e) {
    // fall back to explicit keyed UPDATE/DELETE statements
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling rs.getCursorName() on a PrestoResultSet, typically in code that supports updatable-result-set / positioned-update workflows.

Common situations: Legacy database middleware that resolves cursor names for positioned DML; framework code probing cursor capabilities on every ResultSet.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c8d014ee21b1b48d. Report an issue: GitHub.