risingwavelabs/risingwave · error · ParserError

variable

Error message

variable

What it means

Raised while parsing `SET TIME ZONE <value>`: the value must be a literal (LOCAL/DEFAULT handled earlier, a parsed value, or an identifier); any other token triggers `.expect("variable")`. It reports that the time zone argument is missing or is not a supported value form.

Solutions

1. Provide a supported value: `SET TIME ZONE 'UTC'` or an identifier like `SET TIME ZONE UTC`.
2. Use LOCAL/DEFAULT keywords if that is the intent: `SET TIME ZONE LOCAL`.
3. Check the statement is complete and the zone value's quoting survived templating/shell processing.

Example fix

// before
SET TIME ZONE "America/New_York";
// after
SET TIME ZONE 'America/New_York';

function validTimeZoneValue(v) {
  return ['LOCAL','DEFAULT'].includes(v.toUpperCase()) || /^[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_\/+-]*$/.test(v) || (/^'.*'$/.test(v));
}

try { run(sql); } catch (e) { if (String(e).includes('variable') && /TIME ZONE/i.test(sql)) { sql = sql.replace(/TIME ZONE\s*$/, "TIME ZONE 'UTC'"); run(sql); } else { throw e; } }

When it happens

Trigger: Parsing `SET TIME ZONE <bad>` where the argument is an expression, a double-quoted identifier, a number that is not a valid literal form, or missing (statement ends after ZONE).

Common situations: Session setup scripts ported from other databases (e.g. `SET TIME ZONE INTERVAL '+00:00'` forms); templated SQL where the tz placeholder expanded to nothing; quoting differences losing the zone name.

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

• {0}
• backfill order strategy
• BOTH, LEADING, or TRAILING
• date/time field
• function definition

AI-assisted analysis of risingwavelabs/risingwave@6469eb736d (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8270c46b1e922631. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/sqlparser/src/parser.rs:5176

                        Expr::Value(v) => match v {
                            Value::Interval { value, .. } => {
                                if value != "+00:00" {
                                    return Err(StrError("only support \"+00:00\" ".into()));
                                }
                                Ok(SetTimeZoneValue::Ident(Ident::with_quote_unchecked(
                                    '\'',
                                    "UTC".to_owned(),
                                )))
                            }
                            _ => Err(StrError("expect Value::Interval".into())),
                        },
                        _ => Err(StrError("expect Expr::Value".into())),
                    })),
                ),
                Self::parse_identifier.map(SetTimeZoneValue::Ident),
                Self::ensure_parse_value.map(SetTimeZoneValue::Literal),
            ))
            .expect("variable")
            .parse_next(self)?;

            Ok(Statement::SetTimeZone {
                local: modifier == Some(Keyword::LOCAL),
                value,
            })
        } else if self.parse_keyword(Keyword::CHARACTERISTICS) && modifier == Some(Keyword::SESSION)
        {
            self.expect_keywords(&[Keyword::AS, Keyword::TRANSACTION])?;
            Ok(Statement::SetTransaction {
                modes: self.parse_transaction_modes()?,
                snapshot: None,
                session: true,
            })
        } else if self.parse_keyword(Keyword::TRANSACTION) && modifier.is_none() {
            if self.parse_keyword(Keyword::SNAPSHOT) {
                let snapshot_id = self.ensure_parse_value()?;
                return Ok(Statement::SetTransaction {

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