quarkusio/quarkus · error · IllegalArgumentException

The timestamp must be positive

Error message

The timestamp must be positive

What it means

RangeArgs.filterByTimestamp(long...) filters TS_RANGE samples by timestamps, which must be non-negative epoch values in RedisTimeSeries. Any negative timestamp is rejected with IllegalArgumentException. This is the single-key TS.RANGE analogue of the MRangeArgs check in error 1733.

Source

Thrown at extensions/redis-client/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/redis/datasource/timeseries/RangeArgs.java:55

    public RangeArgs latest() {
        this.latest = true;
        return this;
    }

    /**
     * Filters samples by a list of specific timestamps.
     * A sample passes the filter if its exact timestamp is specified and falls within [fromTimestamp, toTimestamp].
     *
     * @param timestamps the timestamps
     * @return the current {@code MRangeArgs}
     */
    public RangeArgs filterByTimestamp(long... timestamps) {
        if (filterByTimestamps == null) {
            filterByTimestamps = new ArrayList<>(timestamps.length);
        }
        for (long timestamp : timestamps) {
            if (timestamp < 0) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("The timestamp must be positive");
            }
            filterByTimestamps.add(timestamp);
        }
        return this;
    }

    /**
     * Filters samples by minimum and maximum values.
     *
     * @param min the min value of the sample
     * @param max the max value of the sample
     * @return the current {@code MRangeArgs}
     */
    public RangeArgs filterByValue(double min, double max) {
        this.filterByValue = true;
        this.min = min;
        this.max = max;

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

1. Sanitize the array before the call: Arrays.stream(ts).filter(t -> t >= 0).toArray()
2. Clamp computed timestamps to >= 0 with Math.max(0, value)
3. Model 'unset' with Optional/omitting the call rather than negative sentinels

Example fix

// before
args.filterByTimestamp(-1, 100, 200); // -1 sentinel
// after
args.filterByTimestamp(100, 200);

if (Arrays.stream(timestamps).anyMatch(t -> t < 0)) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("all timestamps must be >= 0");
}
args.filterByTimestamp(timestamps);

boolean validTimestamps(long... ts) {
    return Arrays.stream(ts).noneMatch(t -> t < 0);
}

try {
    args.filterByTimestamp(timestamps);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    timestamps = Arrays.stream(timestamps).filter(t -> t >= 0).toArray();
    args.filterByTimestamp(timestamps);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling rangeArgs.filterByTimestamp(...) with a negative long, e.g. -1 sentinels, arithmetic underflow from currentTimeMillis() minus an oversized duration, or negative values from upstream data.

Common situations: Using -1 to mean 'not set'; date arithmetic producing negative epoch values; importing legacy data with negative timestamp columns.

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

• The timestamp must be positive
• Cannot use `WITHLABELS` and `SELECTED_LABELS together
• Cannot combine `WITHLABELS` and `SELECTED_LABELS`
• `timeout` must not be `null`
• `timestamp` must not be `null`

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a54c85e7eafd0357. Report an issue: GitHub.