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Error message that includes magic numbers when you try to use an unsupported file format in Cloud Object Storage

Error message when you try to use an unsupported file format in Cloud Object Storage

In Watson Query, if you virtualize a file in Cloud Object Storage that uses an unsupported file format, you see an error message that includes a magic number, which might be confusing.

Symptoms

For example, you might see an error message that is similar to the following error message.

Error: Failed to parse <filename>.txt, hit exception: 
    Unacceptable file format - must be ORC, Parquet, CSV, TSV, or JSON; found magic number [34, 83, 78, 73]

If the file extension is available, the error message indicates the file extension that is not supported. This message also contains the magic number, which can be used to determine the file format that is not supported when the file extension is not available.

Resolving the problem

  1. Review the error message to see which file was not parsed. The error message indicates that the file format in Cloud Object Storage that you are trying to virtualize is not supported.
  2. If the file extension of the unsupported file format is available, it is provided in the error message. Verify that it is a supported file format for Cloud Object Storage in Watson Query. For more information, see Creating a virtualized table from files in Cloud Object Storage in Watson Query. If the file extension is available, the magic numbers can be ignored.
  3. If the file extension is not available, use the magic number to determine the file format that is not supported. For example, if you are trying to preview an AVRO file, which is not supported yet by Watson Query, then the magic number is 4F 62 6A 01. For more information, see List of file signatures.
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