stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · IllegalArgumentException

Not a valid ellipses style

Error message

Not a valid ellipses style: ${value}

What it means

Same option-parsing path as the quotes style: the "ellipses" option value must be a LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum constant (e.g. UNICODE, UTF8, ASCII). An unrecognized value fails valueOf() and the lexer throws this IllegalArgumentException.

Solutions

1. Use an exact LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum name (case-insensitive), e.g. ellipses=unicode or ellipses=ascii.
2. Verify the options string is split correctly on commas/whitespace so the value is a single token.
3. Cross-check the enum constants in the CoreNLP version you run against.

Example fix

// before
String[] opts = {"ellipses", "three-dots"};
// after
String[] opts = {"ellipses", "unicode"};

boolean ok = Arrays.stream(LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum.values()).anyMatch(e -> e.name().equalsIgnoreCase(value.trim()));
if (!ok) throw new IllegalArgumentException("ellipses must be a LexerUtils.EllipsesEnum name");

try { new PTBTokenizer<>(reader, factory, "ellipses=" + style); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("ellipses style")) { /* fall back to unicode */ } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Option map with key="ellipses" and a value not in EllipsesEnum, e.g. ellipses=dots, ellipses=three-dots, or ellipses=unicode with trailing punctuation that trim() does not remove.

Common situations: Hand-written tokenize.options strings where the author guesses a style name; copying options from documentation of a different library; combining several options and mis-splitting them so a fragment lands in the value.

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 ellipses style:
• Not a valid quotes style:
• Not a valid quotes style

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/21d55241bbaa289b. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/process/PTBLexer.java:61135

          } else if ("normalizeOtherBrackets".equals(key)) {
            normalizeOtherBrackets = val;
          } else if ("quotes".equals(key)) {
            try {
              quoteStyle = LexerUtils.QuotesEnum.valueOf(value.trim().toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT));
            } catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
              throw new IllegalArgumentException ("Not a valid quotes style: " + value);
            }
          } else if ("splitAssimilations".equals(key)) {
            splitAssimilations = val;
          } else if ("splitHyphenated".equals(key)) {
            splitHyphenated = val;
          } else if ("splitForwardSlash".equals(key)) {
            splitForwardSlash = 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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