prestodb/presto · error · IllegalArgumentException

Wrong dataFormat '%s' specified for column '%s'; %s type imp

Error message

Wrong dataFormat '%s' specified for column '%s'; %s type implies use of %s

What it means

RawColumnDecoder.checkFieldTypeOneOf enforces that a column's declared SQL type is compatible with its raw FieldType (dataFormat). For example BYTE/SHORT/INT/LONG formats require an integral column type (TINYINT..BIGINT), FLOAT/DOUBLE require DOUBLE. When the pair is inconsistent, it throws IllegalArgumentException "Wrong dataFormat '%s' specified for column '%s'; %s type implies use of %s" at decoder construction.

Source

Thrown at presto-record-decoder/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/decoder/raw/RawColumnDecoder.java:175

            throw new PrestoException(StandardErrorCode.GENERIC_USER_ERROR, e);
        }
    }

    private static boolean isSupportedType(Type type)
    {
        if (isVarcharType(type)) {
            return true;
        }
        if (ImmutableList.of(BIGINT, INTEGER, SMALLINT, TINYINT, BOOLEAN, DOUBLE).contains(type)) {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    private void checkFieldTypeOneOf(FieldType declaredFieldType, String columnName, FieldType... allowedFieldTypes)
    {
        if (!Arrays.asList(allowedFieldTypes).contains(declaredFieldType)) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(format(
                    "Wrong dataFormat '%s' specified for column '%s'; %s type implies use of %s",
                    declaredFieldType.name(),
                    columnName,
                    columnType.getDisplayName(),
                    Joiner.on("/").join(allowedFieldTypes)));
        }
    }

    public FieldValueProvider decodeField(byte[] value)
    {
        requireNonNull(value, "value is null");

        int actualEnd = end.orElse(value.length);

        if (start > value.length) {
            throw new PrestoException(DECODER_CONVERSION_NOT_SUPPORTED, format(
                    "start offset %s for column '%s' must be less that or equal to value length %s",
                    start,

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

  1. Align the column's SQL type with its dataFormat: integral types (TINYINT/SMALLINT/INT/BIGINT) for BYTE/SHORT/INT/LONG; DOUBLE for FLOAT/DOUBLE.
  2. If you need a different output type, keep the raw column with the matching type and CAST in your queries.
  3. Decode variable-length bytes into VARCHAR (no dataFormat) instead of forcing a numeric format.
  4. Review the raw decoder's type-compatibility table in the connector docs before writing DDL.

Example fix

// before: mismatched type/format pair
-- reading DOUBLE WITH (data_format='LONG', mapping='0:8')
// after: DOUBLE format on a DOUBLE column (8-byte read)
-- reading DOUBLE WITH (data_format='DOUBLE', mapping='0:8')
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

Map<String,Set<String>> OK = Map.of(
  "BYTE", Set.of("tinyint","smallint","integer","bigint"),
  "SHORT", Set.of("smallint","integer","bigint"),
  "INT", Set.of("integer","bigint"),
  "LONG", Set.of("bigint"),
  "FLOAT", Set.of("double"),
  "DOUBLE", Set.of("double"));
void checkRawTypePair(String dataFormat, String columnType) {
  if (!OK.getOrDefault(dataFormat.toUpperCase(), Set.of()).contains(columnType.toLowerCase()))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("type " + columnType + " incompatible with raw format " + dataFormat);
}

Try / catch

try { stmt.execute(ddl); } catch (SQLException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("Wrong dataFormat")) { alignColumnTypeAndFormat(); } else throw e; }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Declaring a raw column whose columnType does not fit the dataFormat, e.g. data_format='DOUBLE' on a BIGINT column, or data_format='LONG' on a VARCHAR column; checkFieldTypeOneOf is invoked from the RawColumnDecoder constructor for each raw column at metadata-build time.

Common situations: Hand-edited DDL where the SQL type was changed but data_format wasn't (or vice versa); generic templates applied across topics; expecting implicit numeric coercion that raw decoding does not perform.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/da6981ec18ed5a22. Report an issue: GitHub.