# \[BUG-5565\] Improve the error description when trying to access a table field that doesn't exist

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-5565-improve-the-error-description-when-trying-to-access-a-table-field-that-doesnt-exist/56163>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** perspective, ignition81\
**Created:** [February 15, 2022, 1:20pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-5565-improve-the-error-description-when-trying-to-access-a-table-field-that-doesnt-exist/56163 "2022-02-15T13:20:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 1:20pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-5565-improve-the-error-description-when-trying-to-access-a-table-field-that-doesnt-exist/56163/1 "2022-02-15T13:20:30Z")

</div>

E.g. Using a query binding and a script transform, if you try to access a field that doesn’t exist, you get a “maximum recursion depth exceeded” error which is bollocks. What would be better would be “key not found” or similar. I spent a little while trying to hunt this down before I realised I just made a typo.

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/c/1/c1706a7cb0d59ffc7ea67ee70ab37e5ba2138fa6.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bkarabinchak.psi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bkarabinchak.psi/32/83567_2.png) [@bkarabinchak.psi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bkarabinchak.psi)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-5565-improve-the-error-description-when-trying-to-access-a-table-field-that-doesnt-exist/56163/2 "2022-02-15T13:23:36Z")

</div>

Can you show your full script? That does seem like an odd error to a KeyError. Just curious if there could be something else possibly at play here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 1:26pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-5565-improve-the-error-description-when-trying-to-access-a-table-field-that-doesnt-exist/56163/3 "2022-02-15T13:26:26Z")

</div>

This is a simplified example:  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/d/e/de786dc892c2dbbf0d51bb76411a3ae3ee14eb39.png)  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/9/2/926ff3f8e91dabe9331c4f5a65b402cb16eef41c.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bkarabinchak.psi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bkarabinchak.psi/32/83567_2.png) [@bkarabinchak.psi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bkarabinchak.psi)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 1:28pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-5565-improve-the-error-description-when-trying-to-access-a-table-field-that-doesnt-exist/56163/4 "2022-02-15T13:28:04Z")

</div>

And that alone gives you a StackOverflow error instead of a key error? Wow yea that is certainly an unhelpful error message.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 1:29pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-5565-improve-the-error-description-when-trying-to-access-a-table-field-that-doesnt-exist/56163/5 "2022-02-15T13:29:37Z")

</div>

> [@bkarabinchak.psi](#):
>
> an unhelpful error message

😆  
Yes it is

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![victordcq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f6c823/32.png) [@victordcq](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/victordcq)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-5565-improve-the-error-description-when-trying-to-access-a-table-field-that-doesnt-exist/56163/6 "2022-02-15T14:02:22Z")

</div>

might be a jyhton thing since its outputting a java error for python dicts

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/bug-5565-improve-the-error-description-when-trying-to-access-a-table-field-that-doesnt-exist/56163/7 "2022-02-15T17:32:33Z")

</div>

Yikes. Good find. This is actually a potential problem in a ton of places.

For fun, all you really need for reproduction:

```auto
from com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common import TypeUtilities
TypeUtilities.pyToGson({})['test']

```