Re: -1228 rc from rdefmtdate()???

foxj@moscow.cc.bellcore.com (fox,james p) writes: >We are using rdefmtdate() and rfmtdate() from a C program to >convert dates from character to long integer and back. The >following sample code prints rc=-1228 for each call. The >error message is "Message number not found in message file." >and description relates to 4GL which we are not using. This problem has a simple solution. Nobody (incl. me) can imagine why this error code is returned which is not even documented for the ..fmtdate() functions ! In addition I can't just vaguely understand why Informix is accessing one of the ".iem" files to convert dates ! I had the same problem and I solved it by re-installing Informix. Not quite. I checked the installation on another system and found that a few files were different and fixed it without re-installing all from scratch. To solve the problem in your case: Re-install Informix, this time in the RIGHT order ! By right order I mean: First the front-ends, then the back-ends. And, in either class, first the "older" ones (with lower version number) and then, of course, the newer ones. If you don't do that, the following will happen and it did in your case, I guess: Every Informix package (SE, OnLine, ESQL/C, ISQL, etc.) comes with its own version of the ".iem" (Informix Error Message ?) files. If, say, a newer version needs message number, e.g., 1473, and it doesn't exist, it will complain about it with the error code you are getting. Now, I guess, that every new version of an Informix tool defines new messages, error codes, etc. and they are appended to the existing ".iem" files to provide compatibility with older versions of other Informix tools. However, if you are installing an Informix tool which is older (lower version number) than any other Informix tool you did install previously, these ".iem" files are simply WRONG. The newer ones are silently overwritten with the old versions. It took me half a week to find that problem. I seem to be the first one having this problem, because nobody at the german Informix support (the swiss one was not present at the time) didn't know about that problem. And they seem to like SCO more than my ISC ! Hope this helps, Norbert. P.S. I did post a reply, because I think that a lot of other people do not know that the order of installation for Informix is IMPORTANT. You can imagine the problems imposed by this approach, can you ? -- Norbert Bladt, Ascom Autelca AG, Worbstr. 201, CH-3073 Guemligen, Switzerland Phone: +41 31 999 65 52 FAX: +41 31 999 65 44 Mail: nbladt@autelca.ascom.ch UUCP: ..!uunet!mcsun!chsun!hslrswi!aut!nbladt