stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · RuntimeException

'search' must be one of 'iis', 'cg', 'qn' or 'owlqn' or…

Error message

'search' must be one of 'iis', 'cg', 'qn' or 'owlqn' or 'owlqn2': " + srch

What it means

A validation error in TaggerConfig.setProperties: the 'search' training option holds a value outside the supported optimizer set (iis, cg, qn, owlqn, owlqn2), so the training algorithm cannot be selected.

Solutions

1. Set -search to iis, cg, qn, owlqn, or owlqn2
2. Use the default (qn) by omitting the flag
3. Check for typos or extra whitespace in the value

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/tagger/maxent/TaggerConfig.java:207 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/183c182d9d3d200c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/tagger/maxent/TaggerConfig.java:207

      this.setProperty("mode", Mode.DUMP.toString());
      // this.setProperty("file", props.getProperty("dump").trim());
      props.setProperty("model", props.getProperty("dump").trim());
    } else {
      this.setProperty("mode", Mode.TAG.toString());
      this.setProperty("file", "stdin");
    }
    //for any mode other than train, we load a classifier, which means we load a config - model always needs to be specified
    //on command line/in props file
    //Get the path to the model (or the path where you'd like to save the model); this is necessary for training, testing, and tagging
    this.setProperty("model", props.getProperty("model", this.getProperty("model", "")).trim());
    if ( ! (this.getMode() == Mode.DUMP) && this.getProperty("model").isEmpty()) {
      throw new RuntimeException("'model' parameter must be specified");
    }

    this.setProperty("search", props.getProperty("search", this.getProperty("search")).trim().toLowerCase());
    String srch = this.getProperty("search");
    if ( ! (srch.equals("cg") || srch.equals("iis") || srch.equals("owlqn") || srch.equals("qn") || srch.equals("owlqn2"))) {
      throw new RuntimeException("'search' must be one of 'iis', 'cg', 'qn' or 'owlqn' or 'owlqn2': " + srch);
    }

    this.setProperty("sigmaSquared", props.getProperty("sigmaSquared", this.getProperty("sigmaSquared")));

    this.setProperty(TAG_SEPARATOR_PROPERTY, props.getProperty(TAG_SEPARATOR_PROPERTY, this.getProperty(TAG_SEPARATOR_PROPERTY)));

    this.setProperty("iterations", props.getProperty("iterations", this.getProperty("iterations")));
    this.setProperty("rareWordThresh", props.getProperty("rareWordThresh", this.getProperty("rareWordThresh")));
    this.setProperty("minFeatureThresh", props.getProperty("minFeatureThresh", this.getProperty("minFeatureThresh")));
    this.setProperty("curWordMinFeatureThresh", props.getProperty("curWordMinFeatureThresh", this.getProperty("curWordMinFeatureThresh")));
    this.setProperty("rareWordMinFeatureThresh", props.getProperty("rareWordMinFeatureThresh", this.getProperty("rareWordMinFeatureThresh")));
    this.setProperty("veryCommonWordThresh", props.getProperty("veryCommonWordThresh", this.getProperty("veryCommonWordThresh")));
    this.setProperty("occurringTagsOnly", props.getProperty("occurringTagsOnly", this.getProperty("occurringTagsOnly", OCCURRING_TAGS_ONLY)));
    this.setProperty("possibleTagsOnly", props.getProperty("possibleTagsOnly", this.getProperty("possibleTagsOnly")));

    this.setProperty("lang", props.getProperty("lang", this.getProperty("lang")));

    this.setProperty("openClassTags", props.getProperty("openClassTags", this.getProperty("openClassTags")).trim());

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