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QUERY_E_INVALID_OUTPUT_COLUMN
An output column is unknown or unusable
QUERY_E_INVALID_OUTPUT_COLUMN is HRESULT 0x80041609. Windows documents it as “One or more columns in the output column list is not valid.”
Interpretation
This result belongs to legacy Windows query execution and is returned while resolving selected properties into the rowset schema. The exact condition is: a misspelled, unavailable, unsupported or incorrectly aliased projection property.
Concrete sources
A failed command or empty rowset is only the visible symptom; it does not identify which restriction, projection, sort, scope, timeout or catalog state violated the query contract.
Observability checklist
- Record canonical property mapping before releasing the relevant objects.
- Associate target schema version with the exact UTC timestamp and correlation identifier.
- Compare failing and known-good values for single-column reproducer under the same provider or handler version.
- Record the source and normalization path of output accessor bindings, not only its display form.
Redact private literals if necessary, but keep clause boundaries, canonical properties, parameter types, dialect and parser or provider offsets.
Investigation order
- Capture exact projection order and canonical property mapping at the call boundary that returns this result.
- Confirm the operation reached resolving selected properties into the rowset schema with the intended target schema version.
- start with one known-good column and add requested properties until the invalid identity is isolated.
Begin with a known-good minimal command against the same catalog and restore projection, restriction, sorting, grouping and scope one component at a time.
Corrective action
Replace the name with a canonical supported property and rebuild accessors for the final order. Backoff helps only with measured transient load or timeout; it cannot repair invalid clauses, projection metadata, scopes or command state.
What must not be inferred
It does not by itself prove catalog corruption, service outage, access denial or absence of matches; the query stage and provider records must identify the failing clause or state.
Neighboring status codes
QUERY_E_DUPLICATE_OUTPUT_COLUMN concerns repetition and QPARSE_E_NO_SUCH_PROPERTY is a parser-level lookup failure.
Developer and administrator guidance
Retain final command text, dialect, catalog generation, parameter values, timeout, cancellation state and chained OLE DB error records. Before rebuilding the catalog or restarting the provider, reproduce the minimal command and preserve its chained errors.
Reproduction example
A client requests a modern property name from a legacy catalog. A one-column test exposes the unsupported projection without reindexing.
Official Microsoft references
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