Invalid Address Error when interacting with a smart contract with metamask

Question

I want to call the methods with metamask of this simple contract:

contract AssetPrices {
  mapping (uint => uint) public prices;
  uint public data;

  function EnterPrice(uint _time, uint _price){
  prices[_time] = _price;
  }

  function GetPrice(uint _time) returns (uint){
  data = prices[_time];
  return data;
  }

}

The contract is deployed at address 0xd884b7b7d6e21798814f218f2daa1054cff33ee5

The index.html file is:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body class="container">
  <h1>A Simple METAMASK controlled contract</h1>
</body>
<script src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/develop/dist/web3.js"></script>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.1.1.slim.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
window.addEventListener('load', function() {
  // Check if Web3 has been injected by the browser:
  if (typeof web3 !== 'undefined') {
    // You have a web3 browser! Continue below!
    startApp(web3);
  } else {
    alert("no web3 detected");
  }
})
function startApp(web3) {
  web3.eth.defaultAccount = web3.eth.accounts[0];
  abi= JSON.parse('[{"constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"_time","type":"uint256"},{"name":"_price","type":"uint256"}],"name":"EnterPrice","outputs":[],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"data","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"_time","type":"uint256"}],"name":"GetPrice","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"name":"prices","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"}]');
  PriceContract = web3.eth.contract(abi);
  ContractInstance = PriceContract.at('0xd884b7b7d6e21798814f218f2daa1054cff33ee5');
  // Enter new price
  ContractInstance.EnterPrice(25,150, {from: web3.eth.accounts[0]});
  // Get the price you entered
  x = ContractInstance.GetPrice(25, {from: web3.eth.accounts[0]});
}
})
</script>
</html>

However when I serve the page I get the following error:

Uncaught Error: invalid address

    at inputAddressFormatter (https://cdn.rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/develop/dist/web3.js:3920:11)
    at inputTransactionFormatter (https://cdn.rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/develop/dist/web3.js:3746:20)
    at https://cdn.rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/develop/dist/web3.js:5005:28
    at Array.map (native)
    at Method.formatInput (https://cdn.rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/develop/dist/web3.js:5004:32)
    at Method.toPayload (https://cdn.rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/develop/dist/web3.js:5030:23)
    at Eth.send [as sendTransaction] (https://cdn.rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/develop/dist/web3.js:5055:30)
    at SolidityFunction.sendTransaction (https://cdn.rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/develop/dist/web3.js:4121:26)
    at SolidityFunction.execute (https://cdn.rawgit.com/ethereum/web3.js/develop/dist/web3.js:4207:37)
    at startApp (http://127.0.0.1:8000/:27:20)

I have a similar problem and doesn't exist a lot information about the invalid address errors. The only what i found is the web3.eth.accounts "solution", but this doens't work for me, cause metamask put the correct account with injected web3.
Maybe somethign like this can help you, if you found the answer write here again ^^ — Gawey, Jul 06 '17 at 09:33
Try to set default account and send transaction in callback from web3.eth.getAccounts(function(err, accounts) {...}. Maybe, it'll help. — Victor Baranov, Jul 08 '17 at 19:48

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 29 '17 at 20:44

16

I had the same problem when testing the contract from 'geth console'.

I found out the problem was not having set the default account. You have to assign a default account and unlock it, like this:

web3.eth.defaultAccount = web3.eth.accounts[0]
personal.unlockAccount(web3.eth.defaultAccount)
contractObj = web3.eth.contract(contractABI).at(contractAddr)
contractObj.method(args...)

I guess the contract uses the default account to pay the gas used by the contract.

answered Nov 29 '17 at 20:44

Jorge M. Londoño P.

338
3
7

1

This worked perfectly. But I am still baffled as to why would I need to unlock the account to get the encoded ABI of a method even before I call it. Any info on this? – Shashikant Soni Jul 20 '18 at 11:20

Rohan Khanna · Answer 2 · 2017-07-06T08:27:47.923

8

PriceContract.web3.eth.defaultAccount=PriceContract.web3.eth.coinbase

You need to set the default account of the contract too. or if contractinstance is what you use to call the functions

Contractinstance.web3.eth.defaultAccount=Contractinstance.web3.eth.coinbase

edited Jul 06 '17 at 08:27

answered Jul 06 '17 at 06:59

Rohan Khanna

123
7

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 06 '17 at 00:05

5

One reason this error can be thrown is if the web3.eth.accounts array is empty, which happens if the user has not signed in to MetaMask.

answered Jul 06 '17 at 00:05

DanF

2,626
10
19

The array is not empty - it has exactly one account – gpanterov Jul 06 '17 at 00:32

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 16 '19 at 17:03

5

Update from January 2019:

The Invalid address error can also happen if you haven't called window.ethereum.enable(); yet.

answered Jan 16 '19 at 17:03

Jesbus

10,478
6
35
62

1

Thank you man! I've been looking for solution for a day now :) – lord5et Jul 29 '21 at 19:09

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 24 '18 at 03:11

1

web3.eth.defaultAccount = web3.eth.accounts[0]; console.log(web3.eth.defaultAccount) This prints the address fine.

but... var address = web3.eth.defaultAccount

When i pass the address or web3.eth.defaultAccount into a smart contract method, it gives invalid address.

I want to know if anyone faced similar issue and how to go about solving this invalid address in the smartcontract methods.

answered Nov 24 '18 at 03:11

J Technology

11
1

1

Please ask a separate question – Achala Dissanayake Nov 24 '18 at 05:33

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered May 07 '19 at 23:18

Have a same problem. Firefox has installed Metamask and web3 variable is already setted, but on DOMContentLoaded time web3.eth.accounts[0] is empty. My solution was

  if (web3.eth.accounts.length === 0){
    var fckdFirefox = setInterval(() => {
      if (web3.eth.accounts.length > 0) {
        web3.eth.defaultAccount = web3.eth.accounts[0]
        window.contract = web3.eth.contract(bsABI).at(bsAddress)
        clearInterval(fckdFirefox)
      }
      else {
       console.log(Date.now(),  " WTF?");
      }
    }, 100)
  }

Output is

  1557269408292  WTF? main.js:30
  1557269408391  WTF? main.js:30
  1557269408493  WTF? main.js:30
  1557269408593  WTF? main.js:30
  1557269408693  WTF? main.js:30
  1557269408794  WTF? main.js:30

E.g. web3.eth.accounts assigned after ~600ms

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 19 '19 at 08:47

The call to web3.eth.accounts does not return a list of accounts, as per the docs:

Fetch the active user account like so:

var userAccount = null;
web3.eth.getAccounts(async function(error, accounts) {

        if (error == null && accounts.length > 0) {
          userAccount = accounts[0];
        }

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 29 '22 at 12:06

I had a similar issue. The root cause was here:

web3.eth.defaultAccount = web3.eth.coinbase

Later you will have to unlock the account which runs the tx, but it error message in that case is more explanatory:

personal.unlockAccount("0x62f8dc8a5c80db6e8fcc042f0cc54a298f8f2ffd")

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Jul 23 '19 at 00:56

0

add window.ethereum.enable(); in the your html file.

edited Jul 23 '19 at 00:56

Shane Fontaine

18,036
20
54
82

answered Jul 23 '19 at 00:13

Joodi

11
2

score -2 · Answer 10 · edited Jan 15 '18 at 00:46

Try using either constant or payable modifier.

function GetPrice(uint _time) constant returns (uint) {...}
// or
function GetPrice(uint _time) payable returns (uint) {...}

Since GetPrice doesn't change a state, probably best to use constant so you don't have to pay a gas cost.

But, if you want to test integration with metamask, you can try payable and see if you get metamask to popup with the gas price of the transaction.

Invalid Address Error when interacting with a smart contract with metamask

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