qax-os/excelize · error

invalid column name

Error message

invalid column name %q

What it means

Error from newInvalidColumnNameError, a validation helper used by column style/width/insert APIs when a column name does not parse as valid letters (e.g. contains digits or punctuation); at fault is the column argument such as "A" or "AB".

Solutions

1. Pass pure alphabetic column names
2. Convert numeric indices with ColumnNumberToName first

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at errors.go:279 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of qax-os/excelize@f2483381fb (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9bc5e4f75e286df5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at errors.go:279

	return fmt.Errorf("incorrect number of tokens in criteria %q", exp)
}

// newInvalidAutoFilterOperatorError defined the error message on receiving the
// incorrect expression operator.
func newInvalidAutoFilterOperatorError(op, exp string) error {
	return fmt.Errorf("the operator %q in expression %q is not valid in relation to Blanks/NonBlanks", op, exp)
}

// newInvalidCellNameError defined the error message on receiving the invalid
// cell name.
func newInvalidCellNameError(cell string) error {
	return fmt.Errorf("invalid cell name %q", cell)
}

// newInvalidColumnNameError defined the error message on receiving the
// invalid column name.
func newInvalidColumnNameError(col string) error {
	return fmt.Errorf("invalid column name %q", col)
}

// newInvalidExcelDateError defined the error message on receiving the data
// with negative values.
func newInvalidExcelDateError(dateValue float64) error {
	return fmt.Errorf("invalid date value %f, negative values are not supported", dateValue)
}

// newInvalidLinkTypeError defined the error message on receiving the invalid
// hyper link type.
func newInvalidLinkTypeError(linkType string) error {
	return fmt.Errorf("invalid link type %q", linkType)
}

// newInvalidNameError defined the error message on receiving the invalid
// defined name or table name.
func newInvalidNameError(name string) error {
	return fmt.Errorf("invalid name %q, the name should be starts with a letter or underscore, can not include a space or character, and can not conflict with an existing name in the workbook", name)

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