prestodb/presto · error · IllegalArgumentException

invalid dataFormat '%s' for column '%s'

Error message

invalid dataFormat '%s' for column '%s'

What it means

RawColumnDecoder's constructor validates the column's dataFormat by FieldType.valueOf(dataFormat.toUpperCase(Locale.ENGLISH)); legal values are BYTE, SHORT, INT, LONG, FLOAT, DOUBLE. Any other string makes valueOf throw IllegalArgumentException, which is rethrown with the message "invalid dataFormat '%s' for column '%s'" at decoder-construction time (table creation / metadata load), not at query time.

Source

Thrown at presto-record-decoder/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/decoder/raw/RawColumnDecoder.java:97

    private final OptionalInt end;

    public RawColumnDecoder(DecoderColumnHandle columnHandle)
    {
        try {
            requireNonNull(columnHandle, "columnHandle is null");
            checkArgument(!columnHandle.isInternal(), "unexpected internal column '%s'", columnHandle.getName());
            checkArgument(columnHandle.getFormatHint() == null, "unexpected format hint '%s' defined for column '%s'", columnHandle.getFormatHint(), columnHandle.getName());

            columnName = columnHandle.getName();
            columnType = columnHandle.getType();

            try {
                fieldType = columnHandle.getDataFormat() == null ?
                        FieldType.BYTE :
                        FieldType.valueOf(columnHandle.getDataFormat().toUpperCase(Locale.ENGLISH));
            }
            catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException(format("invalid dataFormat '%s' for column '%s'", columnHandle.getDataFormat(), columnName));
            }

            String mapping = Optional.ofNullable(columnHandle.getMapping()).orElse("0");
            Matcher mappingMatcher = MAPPING_PATTERN.matcher(mapping);
            if (!mappingMatcher.matches()) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException(format("invalid mapping format '%s' for column '%s'", mapping, columnName));
            }
            start = parseInt(mappingMatcher.group(1));
            if (mappingMatcher.group(2) != null) {
                end = OptionalInt.of(parseInt(mappingMatcher.group(2)));
            }
            else {
                if (!isVarcharType(columnType)) {
                    end = OptionalInt.of(start + fieldType.getSize());
                }
                else {
                    end = OptionalInt.empty();
                }

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

  1. Use one of the supported raw dataFormats: BYTE, SHORT, INT, LONG, FLOAT, DOUBLE (case-insensitive).
  2. Remove data_format entirely if you want the default (BYTE).
  3. If you intended raw text, decode to VARCHAR — raw columns require a varchar column type, not a string dataFormat.
  4. Check the connector documentation for the exact FieldType enum names before authoring DDL.

Example fix

// before: invalid raw dataFormat
-- payload VARBINARY WITH (data_format='bytes', mapping='0')
// after
-- payload BIGINT WITH (data_format='LONG', mapping='0:8')
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

Set<String> RAW_FORMATS = Set.of("BYTE", "SHORT", "INT", "LONG", "FLOAT", "DOUBLE");
void checkRawFormat(String dataFormat) {
  if (dataFormat != null && !RAW_FORMATS.contains(dataFormat.toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT)))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("invalid raw dataFormat: " + dataFormat);
}

Try / catch

try { conn.createStatement().execute(ddl); } catch (SQLException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("invalid dataFormat")) { fixDdlFormatName(); } else throw e; }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Defining a Kafka raw-decoder column with an unsupported dataFormat, e.g. data_format='BYTES', 'binary', 'string', or 'int64'; thrown from the RawColumnDecoder public constructor while building the column decoders.

Common situations: Copy-pasted table DDL from a JSON/Avro decoder topic where dataFormat strings differ; case/tense mistakes ('byte' works, 'bytes' does not); typos like 'integer' instead of 'int'.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e346811a74f1887e. Report an issue: GitHub.