temporalio/temporal · warning

%s has too many dashes

Error message

%s has too many dashes

What it means

In a cron field part that is not "*", at most one '-' (denoting a range like "1-5") is allowed because negative numbers are not valid in this spec. A part containing two or more dashes, e.g. "1-5-7", makes makeRange return this canonical error naming the field.

Source

Thrown at service/worker/scheduler/calendar.go:454

			part = skipParts[0]
			step, err = strconv.Atoi(skipParts[1])
			if err != nil {
				return nil, err
			}
			if step < 1 {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s has invalid Step", field)
			}
			hasStep = true
		}

		start, end := minVal, maxVal
		if part != "*" {
			if strings.Contains(part, "-") {
				// Only a single dash is allowed to denote a range (e.g. "1-5").
				// Inputs with multiple dashes like "1-5-7" should raise the
				// canonical "too many dashes" error expected by tests.
				if strings.Count(part, "-") > 1 { // no negative numbers are expected in spec
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s has too many dashes", field)
				}
				rangeParts := strings.SplitN(part, "-", 2)
				if len(rangeParts) != 2 {
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s has too many dashes", field)
				}
				if start, err = parseValue(rangeParts[0], minVal, maxVal, parseMode); err != nil {
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s Start is not in range [%d-%d]", field, minVal, maxVal)
				}
				if end, err = parseValue(rangeParts[1], start, maxVal, parseMode); err != nil {
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s End is before Start or not in range [%d-%d]", field, minVal, maxVal)
				}
			} else {
				if start, err = parseValue(part, minVal, maxVal, parseMode); err != nil {
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s is not in range [%d-%d]", field, minVal, maxVal)
				}
				if !hasStep {
					// if / is present, a single value is treated as that value to the
					// end. otherwise a single value is just the single value.

View on GitHub (pinned to bde624efd1)

Solutions

1. Express multiple ranges/ranges+values as a comma-separated list: "1-5-7" → "1-5,7".
2. Validate the cron expression before submission.
3. Check the field name in the error to find the offending part.
4. If the intent was an enumeration, use commas, not dashes.

Example fix

// before
spec := "1-5-7"
// after
spec := "1-5,7"

func validRangePart(part string) bool {
    return strings.Count(part, "-") <= 1
}
if !validRangePart(dayPart) {
    return errors.New("use commas to combine multiple ranges, e.g. 1-5,7")
}

When it happens

Trigger: A spec field part like "1-5-7" or "MON-WED-FRI" in the day-of-week field is passed to schedule parsing.

Common situations: Users chaining multiple ranges with dashes instead of commas (correct form: "1-5,7"); copy-paste errors; confusion with other cron dialects that support lists differently.

Related errors

• %s has too many slashes
• %s missing step value
• CronString has time zone but missing fields
• CronString does not have 5-7 fields
• CronString does not have interval after @every

AI-assisted analysis of temporalio/temporal@bde624efd1 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/408aca55a7b60f71. Report an issue: GitHub.