stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · IllegalArgumentException

SpanishLexer: Invalid option value in constructor

Error message

SpanishLexer: Invalid option value in constructor: ${key}: ${value}

What it means

This is the fall-through error in SpanishLexer's option-handling switch: any 'untokenizable' value outside the recognized UntokenizableOptions names (e.g. noneDelete, firstKeep, allKeep, etc.) is rejected. The message includes both the option key and the offending value, distinguishing it from the separate unknown-key error.

Solutions

Use one of the exact UntokenizableOptions values: noneDelete, noneKeep, noneThrow, firstDelete, firstKeep, firstThrow, allDelete, allKeep, allThrow (as defined in the switch).
Verify the untokenizable value casing — the switch matches exact strings like 'allKeep', not all-lowercase.
Normalize/validate the option string before constructing the lexer.
Catch IllegalArgumentException during lexer construction to report the bad key/value pair to users.

Example fix

// before
new SpanishLexer(reader, "untokenizable=keep-all");
// after
new SpanishLexer(reader, "untokenizable=allKeep");

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

java.util.Set<String> valid = java.util.Set.of("noneDelete","noneKeep","noneThrow",
    "firstDelete","firstKeep","firstThrow","allDelete","allKeep","allThrow");
String v = value.trim();
if (!valid.contains(v)) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Bad untokenizable option: " + v);

Type guard

static boolean isValidUntokenizable(String value) {
  if (value == null) return false;
  switch (value.trim()) {
    case "noneDelete": case "noneKeep": case "noneThrow":
    case "firstDelete": case "firstKeep": case "firstThrow":
    case "allDelete": case "allKeep": case "allThrow":
      return true;
    default:
      return false;
  }
}

Try / catch

try {
  lexer = new SpanishLexer(reader, options);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("Invalid option value in constructor")) {
    // log key/value, apply safe default
    lexer = new SpanishLexer(reader, options.replaceAll("untokenizable=[^,]*", "untokenizable=noneDelete"));
  } else { throw e; }
}

Prevention

Use the exact camelCase option values (e.g. allKeep) — the switch is case-sensitive.
Parse the options string into key/value pairs before passing it to the lexer.
Add a unit test constructing the lexer with every documented option value.
Log key and value when construction fails to speed up config debugging.

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing SpanishLexer with 'untokenizable=<badValue>', e.g. 'untokenizable=keep-all', 'untokenizable=none', an empty value, or a value with unexpected casing/whitespace beyond trim.

Common situations: Config copied from PTBTokenizer docs but with altered enum names; typos in properties files; programmatic option string built by concatenation producing empty or doubled values; version drift where an option alias was removed.

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

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2a9fd2f93c26dec4. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/international/spanish/process/SpanishLexer.java:14183

                untokenizable = UntokenizableOptions.NONE_DELETE;
                break;
              case "firstDelete":
                untokenizable = UntokenizableOptions.FIRST_DELETE;
                break;
              case "allDelete":
                untokenizable = UntokenizableOptions.ALL_DELETE;
                break;
              case "noneKeep":
                untokenizable = UntokenizableOptions.NONE_KEEP;
                break;
              case "firstKeep":
                untokenizable = UntokenizableOptions.FIRST_KEEP;
                break;
              case "allKeep":
                untokenizable = UntokenizableOptions.ALL_KEEP;
                break;
              default:
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("SpanishLexer: Invalid option value in constructor: " + key + ": " + value);
            }
          } else if ("strictTreebank3".equals(key)) {
            strictTreebank3 = val;
          } else {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(String.format("%s: Invalid options key in constructor: %s%n", this.getClass().getName(), key));
          }
        }
        // this.seenUntokenizableCharacter = false; // unnecessary, it's default initialized
        if (invertible) {
          if ( ! (tf instanceof CoreLabelTokenFactory)) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("SpanishLexer: the invertible option requires a CoreLabelTokenFactory");
          }
          prevWord = (CoreLabel) tf.makeToken("", 0, 0);
          prevWordAfter = new StringBuilder();
        }
      }

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