What causes "unexpected table spec" in vitessio/vitess?

Use full explicit CREATE TABLE statements (columns and constraints spelled out)

unexpected table spec

Error message

unexpected table spec

What it means

ErrUnexpectedTableSpec indicates schemadiff received a sqlparser.TableSpec it does not expect or cannot handle. Create TABLE entity parsing expects a normal *sqlparser.TableSpec; alternative table constructs produce this sentinel error.

Source

Thrown at go/vt/schemadiff/errors.go:32

limitations under the License.
*/

package schemadiff

import (
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"strings"

	"vitess.io/vitess/go/sqlescape"
	"vitess.io/vitess/go/vt/sqlparser"
)

var (
	ErrEntityTypeMismatch             = errors.New("mismatched entity type")
	ErrStrictIndexOrderingUnsupported = errors.New("strict index ordering is unsupported")
	ErrUnexpectedDiffAction           = errors.New("unexpected diff action")
	ErrUnexpectedTableSpec            = errors.New("unexpected table spec")
	ErrExpectedCreateTable            = errors.New("expected a CREATE TABLE statement")
	ErrExpectedCreateView             = errors.New("expected a CREATE VIEW statement")
)

type ImpossibleApplyDiffOrderError struct {
	UnorderedDiffs   []EntityDiff
	ConflictingDiffs []EntityDiff
}

func (e *ImpossibleApplyDiffOrderError) Error() string {
	var b strings.Builder
	conflictingStatements := e.ConflictingStatements()
	fmt.Fprintf(&b, "no valid applicable order for diffs. %d diffs found conflicting:", len(conflictingStatements))
	for _, s := range conflictingStatements {
		b.WriteString("\n")
		b.WriteString(s)
	}
	return b.String()

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

Use full explicit CREATE TABLE statements (columns and constraints spelled out)
Pre-process the schema to expand CREATE TABLE ... LIKE into concrete definitions
Check the statement parses to a standard TableSpec before passing it to schemadiff

Example fix

// before
entity, err := schemadiff.NewCreateTableEntityFromSQL("CREATE TABLE t2 LIKE t1") // unexpected table spec
// after
entity, err := schemadiff.NewCreateTableEntityFromSQL("CREATE TABLE t2 (id INT PRIMARY KEY)")

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

stmt, err := sqlparser.Parse("CREATE TABLE t2 LIKE t1")
if _, ok := stmt.(*sqlparser.CreateTable); !ok || likeSpeced(stmt) {
	// expand into explicit column definitions before schemadiff
}

Try / catch

if err != nil {
	if errors.Is(err, schemadiff.ErrUnexpectedTableSpec) {
		// reject or expand the statement
	}
}

Prevention

Avoid CREATE TABLE ... LIKE / AS SELECT in managed schemas
Spell out full column definitions
Lint schema DDL before feeding schemadiff

When it happens

Trigger: Calling NewCreateTableEntityFromSQL or getCreateTableStatement on a CREATE TABLE whose parsed spec type is not the expected *sqlparser.TableSpec (e.g. CREATE TABLE ... LIKE or other unsupported forms).

Common situations: Feeding CREATE TABLE ... AS SELECT or CREATE TABLE ... LIKE statements into schemadiff instead of full column-definition CREATE TABLEs.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/039467d66206e705. Report an issue: GitHub.