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Informix Error -1826: DESCRIBE information about this statement is not available at this time.

Cause and resolution

DESCRIBE information about this statement is not available at this time.

When the DEFERRED_PREPARE option is turned on, the description of the statement is not known until the cursor is opened. Therefore, a DESCRIBE can only be executed after an OPEN. If DEFERRED_PREPARE and OPTOFC are both turned on, then the DESCRIBE can happen only after the FETCH, because the OPEN is not executed until the FETCH is executed.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-1826 fires when DESCRIBE is attempted before statement description information is actually available — per the official guidance, with DEFERRED_PREPARE enabled, descriptions aren't available until the cursor is opened, so DESCRIBE must come after OPEN; if both DEFERRED_PREPARE and OPTOFC are active, OPEN itself doesn't execute until a FETCH occurs, pushing the earliest valid DESCRIBE point to after FETCH.

  1. DESCRIBE attempted before OPEN, with DEFERRED_PREPARE enabled, per the official guidance — the direct, common cause.
  2. DESCRIBE attempted before FETCH, with both DEFERRED_PREPARE and OPTOFC active, per the official guidance — the deeper case, since OPEN itself is deferred to FETCH time.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Move DESCRIBE to after OPEN, per the official guidance, when DEFERRED_PREPARE is enabled.
  2. Move DESCRIBE to after FETCH, per the official guidance, when both DEFERRED_PREPARE and OPTOFC are active.
Examples
DESCRIBE too early with DEFERRED_PREPARE
EXEC SQL PREPARE stmt FROM :query_text;
EXEC SQL DESCRIBE stmt INTO sqlda;
-- -1826: with DEFERRED_PREPARE, description isn't available until after OPEN
EXEC SQL DECLARE cur1 CURSOR FOR stmt;
EXEC SQL OPEN cur1;
Corrected
EXEC SQL DECLARE cur1 CURSOR FOR stmt;
EXEC SQL OPEN cur1;
EXEC SQL DESCRIBE stmt INTO sqlda;
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Check whether DEFERRED_PREPARE/OPTOFC are active, and confirm DESCRIBE is placed after the corresponding required statement (OPEN, or FETCH if both are active).
Related Errors / Related Topics

No closely related error codes are cross-referenced for -1826 in this set yet.

DESCRIBE was attempted before description information was available — move it after OPEN (or FETCH, if DEFERRED_PREPARE and OPTOFC are both active).