stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid ordering constraint

Error message

Invalid ordering constraint: ${ordering}

What it means

When converting the sieve ordering constraints given in the OPTIMIZE_SIEVES_ORDER_PROP property into index pairs, a constraint whose BOTH sides are the wildcard '*' (ANY) is meaningless — it constrains nothing. The SieveCoreferenceSystem constructor rejects it with an IllegalArgumentException during initial order-checking of sieves.

Solutions

1. Remove the fully-wildcard constraint (e.g. '*<*') from the ordering constraints property — it imposes no order
2. Keep '*' on at most one side of each constraint, e.g. 'DeterministicCorefSifter<*' or '*<ExactStringMatch'
3. Validate the constraint list with fromSieveOrderConstraintString logic before passing the properties to the system
4. Check the ordering property value in your coref properties file for stray or duplicated wildcard entries

Example fix

// before
dcoref.optimize.sievesOrder = *<*, MentionExtract<*
// after
dcoref.optimize.sievesOrder = *<MentionExtract, ExactStringMatch< ProperNounMatch

String[] orderings = props.getProperty("dcoref.optimize.sievesOrder","").split(",");
for (String o : orderings) {
  String[] sides = o.split("<");
  if (sides.length == 2 && sides[0].trim().equals("*") && sides[1].trim().equals("*"))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Useless constraint: " + o);
}

try {
  SieveCoreferenceSystem corefSystem = new SieveCoreferenceSystem(props);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  logger.warning("Bad ordering constraint, ignoring sieve-order optimization: " + e.getMessage());
  props.remove("dcoref.optimize.sievesOrder");
  corefSystem = new SieveCoreferenceSystem(props);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Supplying an ordering constraint string like '*<*' in the sieve-ordering property, which fromSieveOrderConstraintString maps to Pair(-1,-1); the constructor detects p.first()<0 && p.second()<0 and throws.

Common situations: Copy-paste mistakes in coref optimization config where a wildcard was left on both sides; hand-editing constraint lists without understanding that '*' means 'any sieve'; generating constraints programmatically with an unfiltered empty/default entry.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot have these two ordering constraints
• Cannot have these two ordering constraints
• Invalid metric type for
• No input file specified!
• Invalid sieve name

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4fe42666696c1324. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/dcoref/SieveCoreferenceSystem.java:256

    if (!optimizeMetricTypeOk) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid metric type for " +
              Constants.OPTIMIZE_SIEVES_SCORE_PROP + " property: " + optimizeScoreType);
    }
    optimizeSubScoreType = CorefScorer.SubScoreType.valueOf(parts[1]);

    if (optimizeSieves) {
      String keepSieveOrder = props.getProperty(Constants.OPTIMIZE_SIEVES_KEEP_ORDER_PROP);
      if (keepSieveOrder != null) {
        String[] orderings = keepSieveOrder.split("\\s*,\\s*");
        sievesKeepOrder = new ArrayList<>();
        String firstSieveConstraint = null;
        String lastSieveConstraint = null;
        for (String ordering:orderings) {
          // Convert ordering constraints from string
          Pair<Integer,Integer> p = fromSieveOrderConstraintString(ordering, sieveClassNames);
          // Do initial check of sieves order, can only have one where the first is ANY (< 0), and one where second is ANY (< 0)
          if (p.first() < 0 && p.second() < 0) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid ordering constraint: " + ordering);
          } else if (p.first() < 0) {
            if (lastSieveConstraint != null) {
              throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot have these two ordering constraints: " + lastSieveConstraint + "," + ordering);
            }
            lastSieveConstraint = ordering;
          } else if (p.second() < 0) {
            if (firstSieveConstraint != null) {
              throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot have these two ordering constraints: " + firstSieveConstraint + "," + ordering);
            }
            firstSieveConstraint = ordering;
          }
          sievesKeepOrder.add(p);
        }
      }
    }

    if(doScore){
      initScorers();

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