stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · IllegalArgumentException

Not a valid ellipses style:

Error message

Not a valid ellipses style: 

What it means

FrenchLexer throws this IllegalArgumentException when the 'ellipses' option is given a value that does not match any constant of LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum. The constructor parses option key/value pairs and uses Enum.valueOf on the uppercased, trimmed value; any unrecognized string fails and is rethrown with this message. It is a configuration validation error, thrown at lexer construction time.

Solutions

1. Set the ellipses option to a valid LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum constant name (e.g. "none", "unicode", "ptb"), case-insensitive.
2. Check LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum in the source for the exact set of accepted values for your CoreNLP version.
3. Validate the options map before constructing the lexer, mirroring Enum.valueOf(value.trim().toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT)) in a try-catch.
4. If the value comes from a config file, log or print the offending value; the exception message includes it.

Example fix

// before
props.put("ellipses", "dots");
lex = new FrenchLexer(reader, tf, props);
// after
props.put("ellipses", "unicode");
lex = new FrenchLexer(reader, tf, props);

// before constructing FrenchLexer
String v = options.get("ellipses");
if (v != null) {
  try { LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum.valueOf(v.trim().toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT)); }
  catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("bad ellipses value: " + v); }
}

try {
  lex = new FrenchLexer(reader, tf, options);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("Not a valid ellipses style")) {
    options.put("ellipses", "unicode");
    lex = new FrenchLexer(reader, tf, options);
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling new FrenchLexer(Reader, TokenFactory, Map<String,String>) (or the properties-based constructor) with options map entry key="ellipses" and a value not in EllipsesEnum, e.g. "dots", "...", or "three-dots" (valid values are typically NONE, UNICODE, PTB).

Common situations: Typo in a tokenizer options string in a properties file or pipeline configuration; copying options from PTBTokenizer into FrenchLexer where the enum constants differ; case/formatting changes like "unicode " with stray whitespace (trim is applied, but hyphenated or misspelled variants still fail).

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• Not a valid dashes style:
• Not a valid ellipses style:
• Not a valid dashes style:
• Unknown LogPriorType:
• Not a valid ellipses style:

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c5453adceb1f9773. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/international/french/process/FrenchLexer.flex:149

          normalizeOtherBrackets = val;
          ellipsisStyle = val ? LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum.ASCII : LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum.ORIGINAL;
          dashesStyle = val ? LexerUtils.DashesEnum.ASCII : LexerUtils.DashesEnum.ORIGINAL;
          quoteStyle = val ? LexerUtils.QuotesEnum.ASCII : LexerUtils.QuotesEnum.ORIGINAL;
        } else if ("quotes".equals(key)) {
          quoteStyle = LexerUtils.QuotesEnum.valueOf(value.toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT));
        } else if ("normalizeAmpersandEntity".equals(key)) {
          normalizeAmpersandEntity = val;
        } else if ("normalizeFractions".equals(key)) {
          normalizeFractions = val;
        } else if ("normalizeParentheses".equals(key)) {
          normalizeParentheses = val;
        } else if ("normalizeOtherBrackets".equals(key)) {
          normalizeOtherBrackets = val;
        } else if ("ellipses".equals(key)) {
          try {
            ellipsisStyle = LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum.valueOf(value.trim().toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT));
          } catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException ("Not a valid ellipses style: " + value);
          }
        } else if ("dashes".equals(key)) {
          try {
            dashesStyle = LexerUtils.DashesEnum.valueOf(value.trim().toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT));
          } catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException ("Not a valid dashes style: " + value);
          }
        } else if ("escapeForwardSlashAsterisk".equals(key)) {
          escapeForwardSlashAsterisk = val;
        } else if ("untokenizable".equals(key)) {
          switch (value) {
            case "noneDelete":
              untokenizable = UntokenizableOptions.NONE_DELETE;
              break;
            case "firstDelete":
              untokenizable = UntokenizableOptions.FIRST_DELETE;
              break;
            case "allDelete":

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