prestodb/presto · error · ParsingException

Spaces are not allowed between 'X' and the starting quote of

Error message

Spaces are not allowed between 'X' and the starting quote of a binary literal

What it means

GenericLiteral handles typed literals like DATE '...' or BIGINT '...'. The type name 'X' is reserved for binary literals (X'hex'), and whitespace between the X and the quote makes the lexer see a GenericLiteral with type "X" instead of a binary literal, which the constructor explicitly rejects.

Source

Thrown at presto-parser/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/sql/tree/GenericLiteral.java:48

    {
        this(Optional.empty(), type, value);
    }

    public GenericLiteral(NodeLocation location, String type, String value)
    {
        this(Optional.of(location), type, value);
    }

    private GenericLiteral(Optional<NodeLocation> location, String type, String value)
    {
        super(location);
        requireNonNull(type, "type is null");
        requireNonNull(value, "value is null");
        if (type.equalsIgnoreCase("X")) {
            // we explicitly disallow "X" as type name, so if the user arrived here,
            // it must be because that he intended to give a binaryLiteral instead, but
            // added whitespace between the X and quote
            throw new ParsingException("Spaces are not allowed between 'X' and the starting quote of a binary literal", location.get());
        }
        this.type = type;
        this.value = value;
    }

    public String getType()
    {
        return type;
    }

    public String getValue()
    {
        return value;
    }

    @Override
    public <R, C> R accept(AstVisitor<R, C> visitor, C context)
    {

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

1. Remove the space: write X'ABCD' with no gap between X and the quote
2. Disable auto-formatting that inserts a space before string literals in this context
3. Escape/normalize the literal in generated SQL

Example fix

// before
String sql = "SELECT X 'ABCD'";
// after
String sql = "SELECT X'ABCD'";

// Normalize 'X \'hex\'' to 'X\'hex\'' before parsing
String normalized = sql.replaceAll("(?i)\\bX\\s+'", "X'");

boolean hasSpaceAfterBinaryPrefix(String sql) {
    return sql != null && java.util.regex.Pattern.compile("(?i)\\bX\\s+'").matcher(sql).find();
}

try {
    return sqlParser.createStatement(sql);
} catch (ParsingException e) {
    if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().contains("Spaces are not allowed between 'X'")) {
        return sqlParser.createStatement(sql.replaceAll("(?i)\\bX\\s+'", "X'"));
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Parsing SQL like X 'ABCD' (space between X and the quoted string) — the token parses as a generic literal of type 'X', throwing this error.

Common situations: Hand-formatted SQL with a space after the X, code formatters that insert a space between the type and the quote, copy-pasted queries reformatted by an IDE.

Related errors

• Binary literal can only contain hexadecimal digits
• Binary literal must contain an even number of digits
• NOT_SUPPORTED
• INVALID_LITERAL
• INVALID_TABLE_PROPERTY

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/68e667e12d69b48f. Report an issue: GitHub.