What causes "Schema not found: ${schemaName}" in prestodb/presto?

Create the schema first (CREATE SCHEMA my_schema) in the JDBC catalog or on the remote database

NOT_FOUND

NOT_FOUND

Error message

Schema not found: ${schemaName}

What it means

BaseJdbcClient.createTable() checks the target schema exists via getSchemaNames() before opening a connection to create the remote table. If the schema name is absent, it throws PrestoException(NOT_FOUND, "Schema not found: ...") instead of attempting a doomed CREATE TABLE.

Source

Thrown at presto-base-jdbc/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/plugin/jdbc/BaseJdbcClient.java:372

    }

    private JdbcOutputTableHandle beginWriteTable(ConnectorSession session, ConnectorTableMetadata tableMetadata)
    {
        try {
            return createTable(tableMetadata, session, generateTemporaryTableName());
        }
        catch (SQLException e) {
            throw new PrestoException(JDBC_ERROR, e);
        }
    }

    protected JdbcOutputTableHandle createTable(ConnectorTableMetadata tableMetadata, ConnectorSession session, String tableName)
            throws SQLException
    {
        SchemaTableName schemaTableName = tableMetadata.getTable();
        JdbcIdentity identity = JdbcIdentity.from(session);
        if (!getSchemaNames(session, identity).contains(schemaTableName.getSchemaName())) {
            throw new PrestoException(NOT_FOUND, "Schema not found: " + schemaTableName.getSchemaName());
        }

        try (Connection connection = connectionFactory.openConnection(identity)) {
            boolean uppercase = connection.getMetaData().storesUpperCaseIdentifiers();
            String remoteSchema = toRemoteSchemaName(session, identity, connection, schemaTableName.getSchemaName());
            String remoteTable = toRemoteTableName(session, identity, connection, remoteSchema, schemaTableName.getTableName());
            if (uppercase && !caseSensitiveNameMatchingEnabled) {
                tableName = tableName.toUpperCase(ENGLISH);
            }
            String catalog = connection.getCatalog();

            ImmutableList.Builder<String> columnNames = ImmutableList.builder();
            ImmutableList.Builder<Type> columnTypes = ImmutableList.builder();
            ImmutableList.Builder<String> columnList = ImmutableList.builder();
            for (ColumnMetadata column : tableMetadata.getColumns()) {
                String columnName = column.getName();
                if (uppercase && !caseSensitiveNameMatchingEnabled) {
                    columnName = columnName.toUpperCase(ENGLISH);

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

Create the schema first (CREATE SCHEMA my_schema) in the JDBC catalog or on the remote database
Check the exact schema name/spelling in the CREATE TABLE statement
Verify case-sensitive/case-insensitive name matching config matches how the remote DB stores identifiers
Confirm you are connected to the correct database instance/catalog

Example fix

// before
CREATE TABLE missing_schema.t (id bigint);
// after
CREATE SCHEMA missing_schema;
CREATE TABLE missing_schema.t (id bigint);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Verify the schema exists before CREATE TABLE
ResultSet rs = connection.getMetaData().getSchemas(catalog, schemaName);
if (!rs.next()) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("Schema not found: " + schemaName); }

Try / catch

try {
    connector.createStatement().execute(createTableSql);
} catch (PrestoException e) {
    if (e.getErrorCode() == NOT_FOUND.toErrorCode()) {
        // create the schema, then retry the DDL
        connector.createStatement().execute("CREATE SCHEMA " + schemaName);
    } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Always CREATE SCHEMA before CREATE TABLE in JDBC catalogs
Match identifier case to how the remote database stores schema names
Confirm the target database instance actually contains the schema

When it happens

Trigger: Calling CREATE TABLE / CREATE TABLE AS (beginWriteTable -> createTable) against a JDBC catalog with a schema name that does not exist on the remote database, or one hidden by a case-mismatch between the Presto name and the remote schema name.

Common situations: Typos in schema qualification; forgetting to create the schema on the remote database; case-sensitivity mismatch (e.g. lower/upper stored identifiers) between Presto and databases like Oracle or DB2; using a schema visible in one database instance but writing through a different JDBC connection.

Understand the failure class

Background: NOT_FOUND error code: why tRPC, Harbor, Nacos and other libraries return 404 "not found" errors for resources that may still exist — this error's family across 11 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3a8652efd28bbc7. Report an issue: GitHub.