stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · RuntimeException

unknown value " " in

Error message

unknown value "%s" in %s

What it means

Terminal fallthrough of Timex.getRange: if the val matched none of the recognized forms (dates, PnY/PnM/PnD durations, seasons, quarters, empty-set, etc.), the method throws RuntimeException with the unrecognized val. It signals a value format the range expander does not understand.

Solutions

1. Convert week durations (PnW) to days (PnD) before building/using the Timex
2. Normalize compound durations into the supported PnY/PnM/PnD forms
3. Catch RuntimeException, log the val, and return null or an empty range
4. Extend getRange with an additional Pattern case for the unsupported format

Example fix

// before
Pair<Calendar,Calendar> range = timex.getRange(documentTime);
// after
String v = timex.val();
if (v != null && v.matches("P\\d+W")) {
  timex = new Timex(v.replaceFirst("(P\\d+)W", "$1") /* convert weeks to days: P1W -> P7D */);
}
Pair<Calendar,Calendar> range = timex.getRange(documentTime);

Set<String> supported = Pattern: date8, P\\d+[YMD], \\d+SP, quarter/season codes — pre-check val against these;

try { range = timex.getRange(docTime); } catch (RuntimeException e) { log.warn("unhandled Timex val: " + timex.val()); range = null; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling getRange() on vals like 'P1W' (weeks are not handled), 'P1YT2H', '20090602T1200' style oddities, or other unnormalized strings that reach the end of the method.

Common situations: TimeML corpora containing ISO 8601 week durations (PnW) or compound durations that this implementation does not expand; feeding raw ISO 8601 strings into Timex.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

• begin and end are equal
• begin and end are equal
• Failed to process timex
• no value specified for
• is not a fully specified date

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e4f957c074fbe32c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/time/Timex.java:564

    if (Pattern.matches("\\d\\d\\d\\dW\\d+", this.val)) {
      int year = Integer.parseInt(this.val.substring(0, 4));
      int week = Integer.parseInt(this.val.substring(5));
      int startDay = (week - 1) * 7;
      int endDay = startDay + 6;
      Calendar start = makeCalendar(year, startDay);
      Calendar end = makeCalendar(year, endDay);
      return new Pair<>(start, end);
    }

    // PRESENT_REF
    if (this.val.equals("PRESENT_REF")) {
      Calendar rc = documentTime.getDate();  // todo: This case doesn't check for documentTime being null and will NPE
      Calendar start = copyCalendar(rc);
      Calendar end = copyCalendar(rc);
      return new Pair<>(start, end);
    }

    throw new RuntimeException(String.format("unknown value \"%s\" in %s", this.val, this));
  }

  private static Calendar makeCalendar(int year, int month, int day) {
    Calendar date = Calendar.getInstance();
    date.clear();
    date.set(year, month - 1, day, 0, 0, 0);
    return date;
  }

  private static Calendar makeCalendar(int year, int dayOfYear) {
    Calendar date = Calendar.getInstance();
    date.clear();
    date.set(Calendar.YEAR, year);
    date.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR, dayOfYear);
    return date;
  }

  private static Calendar copyCalendar(Calendar c) {

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