quarkusio/quarkus · error · IllegalArgumentException

`height` must be positive

Error message

`height` must be positive

What it means

Thrown by GeoSearchStoreArgs.byBox when building a GEOSEARCH/GEORADIUSBYMEMBER-style bounding-box search with a negative height (width has its own sibling check). A box with a negative dimension describes no searchable area, so the argument guard rejects it immediately, naming 'height' as the offending dimension of the three (width, height, unit) parameters.

Solutions

1. Compute height as Math.abs(maxLat - minLat) before calling byBox
2. Validate height >= 0 at the input boundary
3. Fix the ordering/arithmetic of the points used to derive the height

Example fix

// before
double height = p1.lat - p2.lat; // can be negative
args.byBox(width, height, GeoUnit.km);
// after
double height = Math.abs(p1.lat - p2.lat);
args.byBox(width, height, GeoUnit.km);

if (height < 0) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("height must be >= 0, got " + height);
}
args.byBox(width, height, unit);

boolean isValidHeight(double height) { return !Double.isNaN(height) && height >= 0; }

try {
    args.byBox(width, height, unit);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    log.error("Invalid box height {}: {}", height, e.getMessage());
    throw new BadRequestException("Box dimensions must be non-negative");
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling byBox(width, -y, unit), usually from bounding-box arithmetic where the points are ordered so that max - min is negative, or from unsanitized input.

Common situations: Swapped min/max latitude when computing the box height; user-entered dimensions not validated; conversion errors between coordinate systems.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• `radius` must be positive
• `width` must be positive
• ANY can only be used if COUNT is also set
• BYRADIUS and BYBOX cannot be used together
• FROMMEMBER and FROMLONLAT cannot be used together

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/43208b815d735664. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at extensions/redis-client/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/redis/datasource/geo/GeoSearchStoreArgs.java:91

        this.radius = radius;
        this.unit = unit;
        return this;
    }

    /**
     * Search inside circular area according to given {@code radius}.
     *
     * @param width the width of the box
     * @param height the height of the box
     * @param unit the unit
     * @return the current {@code GeoSearchStoreArgs}
     **/
    public GeoSearchStoreArgs<V> byBox(double width, double height, GeoUnit unit) {
        if (width < 0) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("`width` must be positive");
        }
        if (height < 0) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("`height` must be positive");
        }
        if (unit == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("`unit` cannot be `null`");
        }
        this.width = width;
        this.height = height;
        this.unit = unit;
        return this;
    }

    /**
     * Use {@code ASC} order (from small to large).
     *
     * @return the current {@code GeoSearchStoreArgs}
     **/
    public GeoSearchStoreArgs<V> ascending() {
        this.direction = "ASC";
        return this;

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