prestodb/presto · error · IllegalArgumentException

No mapping defined for column '%s'

Error message

No mapping defined for column '%s'

What it means

RawRowEncoder requires every non-null, non-VARCHAR-exempt column to carry an explicit byte mapping for raw (byte-slice) decoding. If the column handle has no mapping at all, the ColumnMapping constructor throws IllegalArgumentException 'No mapping defined for column <name>'.

Source

Thrown at presto-kafka/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/kafka/encoder/raw/RawRowEncoder.java:155

            Optional<String> mapping = Optional.ofNullable(columnHandle.getMapping());
            if (mapping.isPresent()) {
                Matcher mappingMatcher = MAPPING_PATTERN.matcher(mapping.get());
                if (!mappingMatcher.matches()) {
                    throw new IllegalArgumentException(format("Invalid mapping for column '%s'", this.name));
                }

                if (mappingMatcher.group(2) != null) {
                    this.start = parseOffset(mappingMatcher.group(1), "start", this.name);
                    this.end = parseOffset(mappingMatcher.group(2), "end", this.name);
                }
                else {
                    this.start = parseOffset(mappingMatcher.group(1), "start", this.name);
                    this.end = this.start + this.fieldType.getSize();
                }
            }
            else {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException(format("No mapping defined for column '%s'", this.name));
            }
        }

        private static int parseOffset(String group, String offsetName, String columnName)
        {
            try {
                return parseInt(group);
            }
            catch (NumberFormatException e) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException(format("Unable to parse '%s' offset for column '%s'", offsetName, columnName), e);
            }
        }

        private static FieldType parseFieldType(String dataFormat, String columnName)
        {
            try {
                if (!dataFormat.isEmpty()) {
                    return FieldType.valueOf(dataFormat.toUpperCase(Locale.ENGLISH));

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

1. Add a mapping to the column definition in the topic's data table, e.g. "mapping": "0-8" covering the bytes holding the value.
2. Use a built-in mapping keyword supported by the encoder (e.g. '_message' or '_key') if the column should map to whole message content.
3. Drop the column from the table definition if it is not actually decoded from the Kafka message.

Example fix

// before (column without mapping)
"name": "id", "type": "BIGINT"
// after
{"name": "id", "type": "BIGINT", "mapping": "0-8"}

// verify every column has a mapping before table creation
for (ColumnDef col : columns) {
    if (col.mapping == null && !isImplicitField(col.name)) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Column missing mapping: " + col.name);
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Creating a Kafka table over the raw data format where a column definition omits the 'mapping' property entirely (and no default like a message/key field is used).

Common situations: New column added to the table definition without updating its mapping; copy of a table definition from a row/json encoder that does not require mappings; column intended as a metadata field but the raw encoder requires an explicit mapping for it.

Related errors

• Mapping length '%s' is not equal to expected length '%s' for
• Invalid mapping for column '%s'
• Unable to parse '%s' offset for column '%s'
• unexpected internal column '%s'
• Column '%s' does not support 'null' value

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7fc0217c9dfd73cd. Report an issue: GitHub.