prestodb/presto · error · PrestoException

HIVE_UNSUPPORTED_FORMAT

HIVE_UNSUPPORTED_FORMAT

Error message

Table StorageDescriptor is null for table %s.%s (%s)

What it means

When converting a Glue Table to Presto's internal Table, a null StorageDescriptor is tolerated only for the dummy/empty path; otherwise convertTable throws HIVE_UNSUPPORTED_FORMAT because the table has no storage definition (columns, location, format).

Source

Thrown at presto-hive-metastore/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/hive/metastore/glue/converter/GlueToPrestoConverter.java:96

                .setTableName(glueTable.name())
                .setOwner(nullToEmpty(glueTable.owner()))
                // Athena treats missing table type as EXTERNAL_TABLE.
                .setTableType(PrestoTableType.optionalValueOf(glueTable.tableType()).orElse(EXTERNAL_TABLE))
                .setParameters(tableParameters)
                .setViewOriginalText(Optional.ofNullable(glueTable.viewOriginalText()))
                .setViewExpandedText(Optional.ofNullable(glueTable.viewExpandedText()));

        StorageDescriptor sd = glueTable.storageDescriptor();
        if (isIcebergTable(tableParameters) || (sd == null && isDeltaLakeTable(tableParameters))) {
            // Iceberg and Delta Lake tables do not use the StorageDescriptor field, but we need to return a Table so the caller can check that
            // the table is an Iceberg/Delta table and decide whether to redirect or fail.
            tableBuilder.setDataColumns(ImmutableList.of(new Column("dummy", HIVE_INT, Optional.empty(), Optional.empty())));
            tableBuilder.getStorageBuilder().setStorageFormat(StorageFormat.fromHiveStorageFormat(HiveStorageFormat.PARQUET));
            tableBuilder.getStorageBuilder().setLocation(sd == null ? "" : sd.location());
        }
        else {
            if (sd == null) {
                throw new PrestoException(HIVE_UNSUPPORTED_FORMAT, format("Table StorageDescriptor is null for table %s.%s (%s)", dbName, glueTable.name(), glueTable));
            }
            tableBuilder.setDataColumns(convertColumns(sd.columns()));
            if (glueTable.partitionKeys() != null) {
                tableBuilder.setPartitionColumns(convertColumns(glueTable.partitionKeys()));
            }
            else {
                tableBuilder.setPartitionColumns(ImmutableList.of());
            }

            new StorageConverter().setConvertedStorage(sd, tableBuilder.getStorageBuilder());
        }

        return tableBuilder.build();
    }

    private static Column convertColumn(software.amazon.awssdk.services.glue.model.Column glueColumn)
    {
        return new Column(glueColumn.name(), HiveType.valueOf(glueColumn.type().toLowerCase(Locale.ENGLISH)), Optional.ofNullable(glueColumn.comment()), Optional.empty());

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

1. Fix the table in the Glue console by providing a StorageDescriptor (location, format, columns)
2. Recreate the table via CREATE TABLE in Presto/Hive
3. Check whatever process produced the table so it writes a complete StorageDescriptor

Table glueTable = glueClient.getTable(GetTableRequest.builder().databaseName(db).name(t).build());
if (glueTable.storageDescriptor() == null) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("Glue table " + db + "." + t + " has no StorageDescriptor; fix metadata before querying");
}

boolean queryable = glueTable != null && glueTable.storageDescriptor() != null;

try {
    table = metastore.getTable(db, table);
} catch (PrestoException e) {
    if (e.getErrorCode().getName().equals("HIVE_UNSUPPORTED_FORMAT")) {
        // report broken table metadata to user / skip table
    } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Reading (getTable) a Glue table whose StorageDescriptor field is null — e.g. a table entry created without storage metadata.

Common situations: Tables created by non-Hive Glue producers (Crawlers edge cases, manual API writes, cross-account copies that stripped StorageDescriptor).

Related errors

• HIVE_UNSUPPORTED_FORMAT
• ACCUMULO_TABLE_DNE
• NOT_FOUND
• NOT_FOUND
• NOT_SUPPORTED

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/47e0b8315f16f359. Report an issue: GitHub.