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QPARSE_E_EXPECTING_REGEX_PROPERTY
Regex matching lacks a string property target
QPARSE_E_EXPECTING_REGEX_PROPERTY is HRESULT 0x8004166D. Windows documents it as “Regular expressions require a property of type string.”
Exact contract boundary
This result belongs to legacy Windows query parsing and is returned while validating the property side of a regular-expression comparison. The exact condition is: the property is absent or resolves to numeric, date, binary or vector data.
Input or state defects
Incident record
- Record canonical property before releasing the relevant objects.
- Associate actual DBTYPE with the exact UTC timestamp and correlation identifier.
- Compare failing and known-good values for regex operator under the same provider or handler version.
- Record the source and normalization path of UI field type, not only its display form.
- Record final parser input bytes before releasing the relevant objects.
How to isolate the cause
- Capture canonical property and actual DBTYPE at the call boundary that returns this result.
- Confirm the operation reached validating the property side of a regular-expression comparison with the intended regex operator.
- capture canonical identity and actual catalog type before constructing the regex node.
Restoration strategy
Allow regex only for string-valued properties and use type-appropriate alternatives elsewhere. Retrying identical parser bytes cannot succeed; regenerate the specific token or schema pairing that failed.
Scope of the result
Comparison with adjacent codes
QPARSE_E_UNSUPPORTED_PROPERTY_TYPE is broader; this value names the regex string-property requirement.
Developer and administrator guidance
Example from a search pipeline
A UI exposes regex for System.Size. The control changes to numeric range semantics.
Official Microsoft references
Looking for a different code? Search another status or error code.