weaviate/weaviate · error

distance vectors must have len 2

Error message

distance vectors must have len 2

What it means

geoDist validates that both operands of a geo-coordinate distance computation are 2-dimensional [lat, lon] pairs. If either vector is nil, empty, or has more than 2 elements it returns this error instead of panicking on index access. It is surfaced through Distance/SingleDist of the geo distancer.

Source

Thrown at adapters/repos/db/vector/hnsw/distancer/geo_spatial.go:21

// \ \ /\ / / _ \/ _` \ \ / / |/ _` | __/ _ \
//  \ V  V /  __/ (_| |\ V /| | (_| | ||  __/
//   \_/\_/ \___|\__,_| \_/ |_|\__,_|\__\___|
//
//  Copyright © 2016 - 2026 Weaviate B.V. All rights reserved.
//
//  CONTACT: hello@weaviate.io
//

package distancer

import (
	"fmt"
	"math"
)

func geoDist(a, b []float32) (float32, error) {
	if len(a) != 2 || len(b) != 2 {
		return 0, fmt.Errorf("distance vectors must have len 2")
	}

	latA := a[0]
	latB := b[0]
	lonA := a[1]
	lonB := b[1]
	const R = float64(6371e3)

	latARadian := float64(latA * math.Pi / 180)
	latBRadian := float64(latB * math.Pi / 180)
	deltaLatRadian := float64(latB-latA) * math.Pi / 180
	deltaLonRadian := float64(lonB-lonA) * math.Pi / 180

	A := math.Sin(deltaLatRadian/2)*math.Sin(deltaLatRadian/2) +
		math.Cos(latARadian)*math.Cos(latBRadian)*math.Sin(deltaLonRadian/2)*math.Sin(deltaLonRadian/2)

	C := 2 * math.Atan2(math.Sqrt(A), math.Sqrt(1-A))

View on GitHub (pinned to 75aa4b6d11)

Solutions

1. Provide exactly {latitude, longitude} in nearGeo and in stored geoCoordinates properties
2. Validate the coordinate array length is 2 before invoking the distancer
3. Fix objects with missing/invalid geoCoordinates by re-importing with complete coordinates
4. Remove altitude/third elements from coordinate arrays

Example fix

// before
{"nearGeo": {"latitude": 51.5}}
// after
{"nearGeo": {"latitude": 51.5, "longitude": -0.12, "maxDistance": 2000}}

func validGeo(coords []float32) bool { return len(coords) == 2 }

func isLatLon(v interface{}) ([]float32, bool) {
    a, ok := v.([]float32)
    return a, ok && len(a) == 2
}

d, err := geoDist(a, b)
if err != nil {
    return 0, fmt.Errorf("nearGeo needs exactly latitude+longitude: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Using nearGeo with a malformed coordinates payload (missing latitude or longitude, or nested arrays); comparing vectors where the 'geo' property was not stored as exactly two floats; programmatic use of the geo distancer with arbitrary slices.

Common situations: GraphQL nearGeo query with geoCoordinates given only latitude; clients sending [lat,lon,alt] triplets; objects imported with null/empty geoCoordinates then queried; custom code calling the distancer package directly with wrong-shaped slices.

Related errors

• latitude must be set
• longitude must be set
• invalid arguments: GeoCoordinates in range must be set
• unknown datatype for aggregation type reference: ${dataType}
• tempVectorForIDWithViewThunk cannot be nil

AI-assisted analysis of weaviate/weaviate@75aa4b6d11 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/23037fa484a6d537. Report an issue: GitHub.