parameter select sql failing to prepare

I am testing my current java application against Informix (9.4 for Windows) and am getting an error when I try to prepare the following statement: // GroupID, ItemID are both integers // ItemNbr is a string INSERT INTO GROUPITEM (GroupID, ItemID)select ?, itemid from itemmaster where itemnbr = ?; I am getting the following error: ERROR: SQLException: -201 - A syntax error has occurred. Now I narrowed it down to the SELECT portion of the SQL. It doesn't like the ? in the select statement. I know this because I substituted the ? in the select statement with a 1 just for testing and it prepared just fine. This same sql statement works just fine in SQL Server, which this app was first tested. My question is this: Why is this causing an error? I am staring at my old 7.X documentation ( yes I have all the manuals ) and in the Informix-SQL quick syntax guide, it looks like it should be a valid SQL statement. Is this a problem with the Informix JDBC driver or a problem with Informix itself? I have no way of testing this in any other environment. I turned on explain and nothing came out. Any advice on what I can do to diagnose or fix this problem would be highly appreciated. Thanks. Mel Haynes Jr Retail Solutions Group, LLC