prestodb/presto · error · PrestoException

HIVE_INVALID_METADATA

HIVE_INVALID_METADATA

Error message

Table/partition metadata has invalid sorting order: 

What it means

SortingColumn.fromMetastoreApiOrder converts a Hive metastore Order byte value into Presto's SortingColumn.Order enum (ASC/DESC). If the stored sort-order byte does not map to any known HiveOrder value, the metadata is considered corrupt and HIVE_INVALID_METADATA is thrown. This guards against manually edited or foreign metadata in the metastore.

Source

Thrown at presto-hive-metastore/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/hive/metastore/SortingColumn.java:67

        public SortOrder getSortOrder()
        {
            return sortOrder;
        }

        public int getHiveOrder()
        {
            return hiveOrder;
        }

        public static Order fromMetastoreApiOrder(int value, String tablePartitionName)
        {
            for (Order order : values()) {
                if (value == order.getHiveOrder()) {
                    return order;
                }
            }
            throw new PrestoException(HIVE_INVALID_METADATA, "Table/partition metadata has invalid sorting order: " + tablePartitionName);
        }
    }

    private final String columnName;
    private final Order order;

    @JsonCreator
    public SortingColumn(
            @JsonProperty("columnName") String columnName,
            @JsonProperty("order") Order order)
    {
        this.columnName = requireNonNull(columnName, "columnName is null");
        this.order = requireNonNull(order, "order is null");
    }

    @JsonProperty
    public String getColumnName()
    {

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

1. Inspect the table/partition SORT_ORDER in the metastore (DESCRIBE FORMATTED or metastore DB) and fix the byte value to 0 or 1
2. Drop and re-create the affected table/partition sort order with valid ASC/DESC values
3. Restore the metastore entry from backup if corruption is suspected
4. If another engine wrote the metadata, align it to Hive-standard sort order encoding

Example fix

// before (corrupt metastore metadata)
SORT_ORDER: (col_a, 2)
// after
SORT_ORDER: (col_a, 1)  -- 1 = DESC, 0 = ASC

// Validate sort-order bytes before reading table metadata in Presto
for (Order order : storageDescriptor.getSortCols()) {
    if (order.getOrder() != 0 && order.getOrder() != 1) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("bad sort order byte: " + order.getOrder());
    }
}

boolean hasValidSortOrder(byte hiveOrder) {
    return hiveOrder == 0 || hiveOrder == 1;
}

try {
    table.getSortColumns();
} catch (PrestoException e) {
    if (e.getErrorCode().getName().equals("HIVE_INVALID_METADATA")) {
        // fix SORT_ORDER in metastore to 0 (ASC) or 1 (DESC)
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Reading table or partition SORT_ORDER metadata whose <column, order> byte is not 0 (ASC) or 1 (DESC) — e.g. metastore data written by another engine or corrupted by manual edits to the SerDe/table properties.

Common situations: Hive tables whose table parameters were hand-edited; metastore populated by third-party tools writing non-standard sort order values; metadata corruption after failed upgrades; partition-level sort info diverging from table-level.

Related errors

• GENERIC_INTERNAL_ERROR
• HIVE_INVALID_METADATA
• HIVE_INVALID_METADATA
• HIVE_INVALID_PARTITION_VALUE
• HIVE_INVALID_METADATA

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2d423a571e18975c. Report an issue: GitHub.